Power Rangers: Elemental Warriors
by SetsunaFeldtSeiei
Summary: Alternate Universe. A string of burglaries, an organisation that hides in the shadows and a force from beyond the stars leads the world down a new path.
1. Invasion Part 1

Earth, 2010.

For many, many years, the city of Hawshaw Vale had been nothing but peaceful. Despite the fact that it was a fairly big, productive city, it had gained the reputation of being the kind of place where nothing of great importance ever occurred. Indeed, it was a tranquil place.

As with all things, however, things couldn't remain this way permanently. In fact, on this very evening the change has already begun. Deep within one of the city's various warehouse districts, a golden ball of light descends on one of the warehouses and disappears inside...

Within the warehouse, the light slowly moved down until it was about half a meter off of the ground, where it hovered for a few moments before a massive pulse of golden light erupted from the ball, the light clearly viewable even from outside the building. As the light faded, a shadowy figure stood where the ball of light had been.

Looking around him, it was hard to see anything in the almost complete darkness. The only light in the entire room came from the small windows that lined the walls, the moonlight dimly shining against the armor that covered his body.

He waited for a few seconds for his eyesight to adjust to the darkness before reaching for a device hanging from his belt. Holding it up to the moonlight so that he could see a panel on its front, he pressed one of the buttons, leading the device to emit a small humming noise. About a second later, an image appeared on the screen, containing a holographic, detailed image of the warehouse, displayed in a gentle green. There was a tiny flashing red dot on the map where the back of the warehouse was.

Without wasting a moment, he quickly and quietly began walking in the direction of the dot, but before he could even walk to the next room, the building's security systems activated, setting the alarm off. He looked around for a way to turn the shrieking noise off, the sound initially making him cringe a little, but knew that it would just take too long. He also knew it wouldn't be too long before he was interrupted.

Quickening his pace, he moved towards the shutter leading to the next section of the warehouse. _'Time is short...'_ he thought as he quickly analyzed the metal divide. It was heavily secured, but didn't appear to be very durable.

Putting the device on the floor, he once again reached for something from his belt; he drew a sword from its scabbard, the gleaming blade shining in the dull moonlight. Grabbing the hilt with both hands, he held it above his head, the blade beginning to glow in a brilliant golden light.

As bright as the light was, however, it couldn't hope to match the darkness he was feeling within his heart._ 'Where is the honor in this?'_ he thought as the sword's light pulsed. Just as it did so, he yelled as he swung the sword down before him sending the blade on a collision course with the shutter.

The sheer force of the strike alone was enough to cleanly cut through the metal barrier, but the small shockwave sent from the blade's stored energy was the finishing blow, the pressure blowing the entire shutter, the frame that was attached to it and even a few pieces of the wall itself straight across the new room. The might crashing sound the various objects made as it landed momentarily eclipsed the repetitive wailing of the alarm.

Putting his sword away, he picked his device back up and rushed through into the next room. The device clearly indicated that the target was in this room. Looking around him as the dust cleared, he could see exactly what he was looking for – a small safe lying on the floor in the corner.

Turning the device off and putting it back onto his belt, he leant down and picked up the safe. Despite its great weight, he was more than strong enough to pick it up without any difficulties. He breathed a sigh of relief. For once, there was to be no trouble, it appeared.

Just as the thought passed is mind, he sensed it. There was someone else in the room with him. Turning around, he could just about make out someone running towards him from the room he came from himself.

"Stop right there!" cried the new arrival, who appeared to be wearing some kind of red suit.

The shadowy figure simply shook his head, holding the safe close to him as he shut his eyes.

As a golden aura surrounded the figure, the red-suited arrival drew some kind of handgun from his belt and shot several fist-sized balls of red light at him. Before they could connect however, the golden light pulsed once more, deflecting the shots, forcing the red figure to dodge his own attacks as he dived behind a nearby crate.

Quickly jumping back up, he ran back into the open just in time to witness the figure disappearing in an orb of golden light, flying upwards and disappearing through the roof.

_'Darn it! How could I let him get away again?!'_ he thought as he could just about make out the sounds of police cars approaching the building._ 'Time to leave!'_

Reaching for a strange device on his wrist, he pressed one of the buttons. He too turned into a ball of light, this time red, and flew away...

Despite the chaos that had been, the rest of the night passed without further incident. It was now Saturday morning, the news of the burglary broadcast all over the news. In one of the city's many houses, a teenage boy was listening to the story on the family radio as he ate his breakfast.

"...And to repeat today's main story, yet another warehouse in the industrial district was the target of a robbery last night. The police forces are not giving us much detail at this point in time, but what we have been told is that the scene does appear to be linked to the dozens of similar robberies that have occurred over the past few months. This is currently the 11th burglary in the past 9 weeks..."

At that point, the young man turned off the radio, sighing. _'Again? What on Earth could they be after?'_ he wondered aloud as he took a passing glance at his watch – 8:49AM. His eyes widened in surprise. _'Nuts! Late again!'_ he thought. He had arranged to meet up with some friends at 9, which meant he should have left ages ago. Gulping down the last of his breakfast, he bolted for the door, stopping only to pick up his jacket before leaving.

About 10 minutes later, two teenagers, a boy and a girl, were sat on a bench on the local high street, waiting. The girl sighed. "Glen, you did tell him that we were meant to be meeting up, right?"

Glen nodded. "You betcha. Then again, we both know the Tristan's never been known for his timekeeping skills, right Em?"

Out of all three of the friends, Glen was by far the most energetic. To those that didn't understand him, he often came off as annoying, but those close to him knew that his personality came from his constant thrill-seeking. He was loud, cheerful and friendly, although he was occasionally bad with the way he words things, often making innocent comments seem like extreme insults. He was fairly tall, with short, blonde hair and blue eyes. Because he was always running around and trying different things, he had developed a relatively athletic build over the last few years, particularly from where Tristan had been teaching him some of the martial arts he knew. He always seemed to be wearing yellow, something which oddly went well with his energetic personality.

Emily, known as "Em" by many people, was in many ways the complete opposite to Glen. She was the quiet, shy type that seemed to make many friends without even trying. Well known for her warm, caring and friendly personality, many people trusted her deeply and would often talk to her about their problems, something she never tired of, mainly because she hated being alone, she loved her friends with all her heart. Like the others, she was also an active person and enjoyed swimming. She was the shortest of the trio, with bright blue eyes and shoulder length blonde hair. She wore blue a lot, which in many ways matched her calming personality.

For 10 minutes, they continued to wait and wait for Tristan. By this point, Glen was impatiently pacing up and down in front of the bench. It was driving Emily mad, but she didn't want to mention it because she knew that he'd probably just get even more impatient if he was made aware of it.

Her mind drifted to the news of the warehouse robbery, wondering if it would lead to anything more serious. One way or another, the general atmosphere of the city had grown a lot more tense than usual since the robberies started. There was nothing to confirm it either way, but she had heard rumors that the robbers always seemed to cause a fair amount of damage inside the targeted buildings, but it was seemingly far too much to have been caused by your typical robber.

Deep inside herself she could feel that nothing good would come of any of this. As she ran her mind through it over and over, she became entirely lost in thought, staring up at the perfect blue sky...

At the same moment, around the orbit of the moon, there was a small, deadly looking spaceship. Inside, on the cold, dark bridge, a lone being stood there, looking out into the black depths for a few moments before turning to something on the floor. It was a safe, the same safe that he had stolen just hours before.

Going on appearances alone, it was difficult, if even possible, to tell if he was human or not. Standing at a massive 7 foot all, his body was covered with golden armor, heavily damaged from many battles. Having taken off his fierce looking helmet however, which lay on one of the nearby consoles, he certainly looked human. He looked about the same age as Tristan and his friends. He looked very gentle and harmless, much unlike what his behavior had shown. He had sharp looking brown eyes, matched with short brown hair.

After fiddling around with the safe for a little while, he finally managed to open it, albeit with a little force. Inside it, he found a locked briefcase, which he proceeded to rest on a console. Carefully, he proceeded to break the locks on the case and opened it up, revealing its contents.

Inside there was a small sphere, roughly the size of his fist. He looked at it, deeply in thought. _'There's no doubt. This is indeed what I was looking for.'_

Looking at a small plate on the inside of the briefcase confirmed his theory. It simply read "BATTERY PROTOTYPE: HANDLE WITH CARE".

After carefully putting the battery back into the briefcase, he reached into a small shelf inside one of the consoles, pulling out a silver sphere, about the size of a standard basketball – a special device he had built from the things he had stolen from the other warehouses. The device contained a sphere-shaped hole, which he carefully slipped the battery into, pulling over a cover to stop it from falling out.

His head turned to face the floor. He looked upset. _'Is this... Is this really the only way?' _he wondered.

He walked over to the opposite wall, where one of the panels had been removed, revealing another hole. Taking one final look at the device, he sighed and slotted it into place before taking the panel and fixing it back onto the wall.

Pushing a button next to the panel, a gentle humming sound could be heard as the device began to power up. A few moments later, he heard one of the doors behind him slide open as someone walked in. Turning around, he could see some kind of android moving towards him. 11 more followed behind him. As they came close, they stopped and began to speak with a raspy metallic voice.

"General Vazon, we await your orders."

Vazon looked at them as 4 more came in and joined the formation. His mission appeared to have been a success. If these were moving, the several hundred others around the ship were no doubt wandering around as well.

_'All for the cause of war... Father, what would you do in my place?'_ he wondered...

Back on Earth's surface, it was now 9:20. By this point, Glen was pacing up and down so fast he might as well have been running.

"I've had enough!" he exclaimed. "I'm going to go on ahead."

Emily stood up and faced him. She understood why he was annoyed, but she didn't feel right leaving without Tristan. "Glen..." she said in a slightly frustrated tone, "Tristan will be here, OK?"

Shaking his head in response, Glen turned away. "Look Em, if you really want to, you're happy to wait for him. Me on the other hand, I'd like to get back to my life now. When he gets here, or rather, if he gets here, feel free to catch up!" he yelled as he ran off down the road.

Emily wanted to run after him, preferring if they all stuck together, but she knew that if someone didn't wait for Tristan, he'd be the one complaining. Sighing, she sat back down and watched Glen dash around the corner at the end of the road.

A few moments later, Emily heard a familiar voice shouting at her from the other direction. "Emily! Hey!"

Emily stood up once more and saw him sprinting towards here. She waited for him to get to her and stop before she said anything. She couldn't help but giggle. "Late again?" she said with a smile on her face.

"How... How could you tell?" Tristan said sarcastically in-between deep breaths.

Tristan was a good natured guy, but if he was known for anything at all, it was his terrible sense of timekeeping. He was constantly late for everything, school, friends, anything. His friends, no matter how often they saw it, couldn't help but wonder how he managed it consistently every single time. Physically, he was well built, mainly from being a keen martial artist. He was always practicing whenever he wasn't doing anything and he had become very adept at it. He had black hair, brown eyes and had a tendency to wear red, which everyone always found entertaining since he always seemed to be running around like a bull.

Looking around, he couldn't see Glen anywhere. "Let me guess... Glen went ahead again, right?" he asked as Emily responded with a nod.

"We should go find him." She said cheerfully as the pair started to walk down the road.

Before they could get very far, frantic screaming could suddenly be heard from a nearby street. Moments later, the same sounds could be heard from several directions.

"What the-" Tristan began to mutter as several silver beams of light rained down from the sky to hit the ground before them. Where the beams struck, humanoid-like beings stood. Covered in metal armor and their voices having a raspy metal tone to them, the pair instantly knew that they were in trouble. Sensing the danger, Tristan instantly moved into a defensive stance.

"W-what are they?!" Emily cried as she could see more of the beams flying down in the background.

"I don't know, but I'm guessing they're not friendly. Too early for Halloween, too." He replied.

Before they could say anything else, the beings rushed at them.

"Move!" Tristan yelled as Emily ducked out of the way.

Both of the beings rushed at Tristan, who was quick to throw one over his shoulder before elbowing the other one in the chest. He got lucky with the first one as they turned out to be a bit lighter than most adult-sized humans, but he didn't realize that whatever they were made of was so durable; his attack bounced off the second one without a dent.

_'What?! Not good!'_ he thought as blocked it's first punch, only to be sent reeling by a second blow to the stomach...

Standing on the end of a nearby street, Vazon, now wearing his helmet again, watched the carnage around him with his sword in hand. 'Let this be dealt with quickly.' He thought as he rushed into battle.

As Tristan continued to fight, Emily found herself to be the target of 2 more attackers. She had some fighting ability, having been taught by Tristan, but she didn't feel confident about her chances against her opponents and chose to go down a more evasive approach, nimbly dodging the attacks as they came her way.

She appeared to be doing pretty well, but as she evaded a kick, something caught her eye in the distance – some kids in a nearby alleyway, surrounded by more of these mysterious invaders. However, it was just enough of a distraction to catch her off guard as one of them punched her, sending her flying to the floor.

As she looked up, Tristan seemed to be doing even worse. 2 more of them had joined in the battle, and Tristan had been forced to go on the defensive, constantly trying to block the incoming attacks, but he just wasn't fast enough as he took blow after blow. All 3 of them kicked him at the same time and he was thrown backwards into a wall, collapsing to his knees and holding his stomach in pain.

Emily scrambled over to him and helped him up, and together they kept their distance from their attackers.

"We need to get... Out of here. Glen's gotta be around somewhere." Tristan muttered through the pain.

Shaking her head, Emily replied. "We can't leave yet, look!" She pointed over at the alleyway. "We have to help them!"

Tristan shook his head. "How can we expect to save them when we can't even defend ourselves? Besides, we can't save everyone."

Emily stopped in her tracks, horrified. "How can you say that? They're just kids!"

Shutting his eyes for a moment, Tristan quickly tried to come up with a strategy. As dangerous as it was, he already knew that he couldn't turn away from them. At the same time, they had no hope of beating them all, especially with the others closing in from behind.

"Fine, but we have to hurry!" he replied, moving himself away from Emily, barely managing to stand on his own.

Nodding, Emily gave him a hopeful smile as they made their way to the alleyway.

As they got there, Tristan sprinted at the first one ahead of him and shoulder charged at it. It heard him coming and started to turn around, but there was no time for it to try and stop him as he collided with it, which in turn sent it into most of the others, all of them toppling like dominoes. Emily decided to copy the technique and slammed into the last remaining enemy, sending it careering backwards.

The two of them ran to the children and got them all to stand up. "You're going to be safe guys, just stick with us." Tristan ordered. As they turned around to come back from where they came, they were greeted by a terrifying sight – the group that they fought before had already caught up with them, and the group they had just dealt with was now coming from the other direction, leaving them trapped in a pincer.

"N-n-nice knowing you!" Tristan yelled.

"Tristan!" Emily yelled back. She couldn't believe that someone like him could have given up so easily.

'This can't be the end!' Tristan thought as the enemies came closer and closer, surrounding the group entirely.

Just as it all looked like that was going to be the end, a red-suited figure front-flipped from the roof above them, firing some kind of handgun down on the android-like beings, each one being destroyed in a single shot. As he landed on the ground facing away from the group, the last of the beings fell.

Everyone simply stood still in stunned silence as whoever it was stood up and turned around to face them.

From looking at him, it was impossible to tell who he was, but he looked powerful. He appeared to be just a little taller than Tristan was, completely covered in a red suit and helmet. His gloves, boots and collar were white. In the middle of his chest was a round, gold colored emblem, the inside of which was white apart from a red flame symbol in the middle. He also wore a golden belt, the buckle of which had 3 marble-sized slots in them – the central one contained a red orb, the others were empty. On the side of the belt was a holster which now held his weapon once more. All down the sides of his arms, body and legs was a single white stripe.

"T-t-thank you!" Emily said, relieved that this stranger had saved them.

However, just as she finished talking, he grunted in surprise, drawing his strange gun once more, aiming it in the direction of the group, whose faces quickly regained their terrified gaze.

"What the hell are you doi-" Tristan started to yell at him, but before he could finish, the stranger fired, the projectiles flying straight past them. Tristan turned his head just in time to see yet another terrifying sight – Vazon, his sword harmlessly deflecting the shots.

Tristan quickly gestured to Emily to move the kids as close to the side as possible. _'Another freak? Gimme a break...'_ he thought as he too moved aside, in the likely case that the red stranger would fire more shots.

As he kept looking at both of them, it was clear that they were at the very least acquaintances. They walked towards each other, weapons firmly gripped in hand, until they were a few feet away from each other. They remained silent, the only noise coming from the sounds of destruction from the surrounding streets.

A few moments passed before Vazon spoke. "We finally get to fight, Red Ranger."

Tristan's eyes widened as he heard it._ 'Ranger.'_ Something about the word awakened something deep down within him.

"Later than I'd like, but your time's up." the Red Ranger replied.

Tristan turned to Emily. "You guys have to go, now."

Gasping in disbelief, Emily shook her head. "Wait, you can't!"

He shook his head, turning away from her. "You trust me, right? Have some belief in me as well."

Emily nodded silently, she knew he couldn't be talked out of it. She began talking to the children and they started to run away, past the Red Ranger, in the direction they came from.

Tristan, on the other hand, ran up to the Red Ranger, faced Vazon and moved into a fighting stance.

Surprised, the Red Ranger glanced over at him. "Can't you see how dangerous this is? Get away from here!"

Tristan laughed. "Never. Something tells me you're the good guy here, and he doesn't look like the rest of them which means he must be the guy in charge. Even if I lose, I can't turn back now."

Without replying, the Red Ranger put away his gun and held out his hand. "Flame Saber!" he cried, a silver orb materializing in his hand. In a swift motion, he slotted the orb into the left slot on his belt. Both orbs glowed and a mist of red energy appeared before him, roughly the size of his head. Putting his hand up to it, the mist rushed into his hand and there was a bright light as the saber emerged.

Taking up a fighting stance, the opponents stared each other down. The battle was about to begin...


	2. Rangers Part 2

Wasting no time at all, the Red Ranger charged straight at his opponent, Tristan following him closely behind. The Red Ranger swung his saber forwards, hoping to lock blades with his opponent, but he was far too strong and the saber's attack was deflected easily, so easily that the Ranger nearly lost grip of the weapon entirely. Before he could counter, the enemy slashed at him, forcing him and Tristan to dive away.

Both rolled out of the dive and jumped back up just in time to see the golden-armored foe rushing at them. Tristan moved aside as the other combatants engaged each other in a sword fight, the power and aggression from both sides was terrifying.

_'What am I doing?' _Tristan thought as he watched the combat continue._ 'I'm so out of my depth here it's not even funny. This is... This is real.' _Something inside of him still wanted to keep fighting, but the fact that they were both wielding powerful weapons didn't do much for his confidence. Looking back up, he saw that the Ranger was in trouble, having been forced onto the defensive. Seeing that there was no other way, Tristan rushed into the battle.

The Red Ranger saw Tristan coming towards them._ 'He's either very brave, or very stupid.'_ He thought, realizing that he could use this to his advantage. With careful timing, he attacked the golden warrior in a way that forced him to block, leaving his side completely exposed, just in time for Tristan to deliver a flying kick.

It hit the mark spot on, but failed to do any damage. The warrior flung around to slash at Tristan, giving him just enough time to dodge it.

The Red Ranger quickly jumped back knowing that his plan was working out exactly what was intended. "Fireball!" he cried as he held a hand up in front of him, another orb materializing in his hands. This one was clear and see-through and appeared to have real flames roaring inside.

Slotting it into the right slot on his belt, he stuck his saber into the ground, its sharp blade piercing into the stone path. He pulled back his right hand, just as a baseball player would if he was throwing the ball. At this point, red mist appeared until it formed a ball of fire, blazing away just above his palm.

Throwing himself forwards, he flung the fireball with great force, speeding towards his opponent. As he did so, he twirled around and grabbed his saber in his left hand, its solid red blade slashing the warrior as he finished the spin. As he slowed to a stop, the orb he had just put into his belt faded away.

The warrior grunted in pain as Tristan backed away, running back to the Red Ranger. Turning to the pair, he shook off the blows as if nothing had happened, charging at them again, sword in hand...

Meanwhile, amidst the chaos, Emily had managed to get the children into the local leisure centre, where she ran up to one of the staff. "Tell me, is it safe here?" she asked them with a panicked tone to her voice.

The staff member nodded in response. "For the moment it is, our security staff are doing their best to hold off those things outside, I just hope it all ends soon."

Emily wasted no time in responding. "Please, can you take care of these children? Me and a friend of mine were able to save them from being attacked, but they need somewhere to go until this dies down. Please!"

Looking around, the staff member tried to find a place they could go. "I'm sure we can find somewhere."

Finding some small happiness in knowing that the children would be safe, she ushered them to follow the staff. "You'll be safe now, hurry."

One of them looked up at her, confused. "You're not coming?"

Shaking her head, Emily rushed to the door. "I can't, there's some people out there that still need my help. Go on, everything's OK."

The children silently nodded and rushed into a nearby room. Emily watched them disappear before rushing back outside into the chaos. Stopping briefly to look around, there was nothing but carnage and destruction everywhere. Knowing she couldn't stop for too long, she started running as fast as she could as many thoughts ran through her mind. _'Tristan... Glen... Please, please be safe!'_

As she continued to run back to the alleyway, she heard a familiar voice. "Em! Em!!!"

She quickly came to a halt as she quickly scanned the nearby streets, a smile beaming over her face as she started to run towards the source. "Glen! You're OK!"

Both of them stopped when they reached each other. Glen spoke first. "I'm fine, I don't know what the heck is going on around here, but you're not going to believe this – I just got saved by some guy in a black suit!"

Before Emily could reply, she noticed more of the attackers coming from where Glen had been. "Looks like you brought some friends with you. We have to get out of here!" she said as she started running again.

Glen wasted no time in chasing after her, not wanting to get into another one-sided fight again. "Where are you going? Where's Tristan?" he yelled as they ran for their lives.

"That guy you mentioned, in black... I left him with some guy in red, fighting someone who seems to have something to do with all this." she replied as they rounded the next corner.

"In that case we have to pick up the pace!" Glen said as the pair started sprinting._ 'Just what in hell is going on here, anyways?'_ he thought to himself as they ran past more of the attackers.

Meanwhile, the fight was still raging and it was becoming very clear that the Red Ranger and Tristan couldn't win. Despite their best efforts, the Red Ranger could do nothing but continue to block and evade the constant attacks, whilst all of Tristan's interventions amounted to very little.

As Tristan dodged out of the way yet again, he saw something down the other end of the alleyway. Stopping for a second to check what it was, he could see someone in Pink running towards them, followed by a horde of the attackers.

_'A Pink Ranger...'_ he thought. Looking towards her, he could clearly see at least 10 rushing after her. Taking a quick glance behind him, he could see that the duel was still in full swing. _'I must be out of my mind!'_ He thought as he ran towards the Pink Ranger.

The Red Ranger saw his comrade up ahead, but there was nothing he could do. Seeing the boy running to aid her, he couldn't help but feeling some kind of respect for him. _'Yes, that's right. Your tactics are sound._' He thought as he now realized that the best thing he could do was buy time. _'Where are you?'_ he wondered as he started to become tired from trying to keep up with his opponents seemingly limitless energy.

"Don't let them get any closer!" Tristan yelled to the Pink Ranger as he flung himself into combat with the assailants, adeptly evading their blows, hoping the Pink Ranger would take care of them.

The Pink Ranger stopped and turned around to see him fighting with all his strength. "I'm not the type to take orders..." she began to say as she held out her hand. "But on this occasion, you do have a point. Wind staff!" she cried as a silver orb appeared. Slotting it into her belt's left slot and held her hand out, just like the Red Ranger had done. A pink mist appeared and took the shape of a staff covered in white and pink, a large pink crystal was embedded in both ends of the weapon.

She charged forward and began to strike the enemies down, her powerful staff taking out many of them with ease. As they were thrown back however, even more of them appeared from behind the corner.

"Playtime's over." The Ranger said with a cold tone, holding her hand out. "Wind Tunnel!" she cried, an orb materializing in her hands, this one was different from the one Tristan saw the Red Ranger use. This one was still clear, but with a dim pink light within it. Slotting it into the right hand slot, both the right and left orbs began to glow in a bright pink light.

Standing up straight, she held the staff in the middle and began twirling it around at high speed. Tristan saw the danger coming and dived aside as a massive, constant blast of wind was emitted from the staff, throwing the enemies against the wall. As it held them there, pink orbs of energy also flew from the staff, striking them with huge force. As the last of them fell, she stopped the attack. Both glowing orbs in her belt faded away and her weapon disappeared.

Tristan ran up to her, wanting to yell at her for giving him no warning, but as he looked behind him, he saw a horrifying sight – the Red Ranger being slashed and thrown against a wall. "No!" he yelled as he started to run back to him. The Pink Ranger, seeing it as well, gasped in shock and quickly followed.

As they approached, Emily and Glen could see it too and were just as helpless as Tristan and the Pink Ranger as they watched the golden warrior deliver a vertical slash, an attack which the Red Ranger couldn't dodge. Several bursts of sparks flew everywhere from the Ranger's suit as he took the full toll of the attack.

As both groups approached, the warrior stepped back, watching the Ranger slump to the ground as a bright red light engulfed him. As it faded, his human form was revealed. Seeing the Pink Ranger approaching, he knew that he couldn't stay.

All of a sudden, Tristan yelled "Get down!" Confused, Glen and Emily looked behind them as a massive ball of black energy approached them at high speed. They hit the floor as it soared over them, heading straight for the golden warrior. As it approached however, he swung his sword upwards, easily deflecting the blast as it flew into the sky, where it disappeared.

Following the blast to its source, the warrior saw a Black Ranger running towards him, holding some kind of weapon that faded away like the Wind Staff had done. Shaking his head, he prepared to teleport. Looking down at the fallen Ranger, he spoke. "I will withdraw... For now." Stepping back, he began to glow in a golden aura once more.

"W... Wait. Who the hell are you?" the fallen Ranger asked, coughing and writhing in pain.

"Vazon." He replied, turning into a golden ball and disappearing. As he did so, everyone could see beams of light rushing into the skies from all directions. It appeared that the battle was over, for the time being.

Everyone ran towards the fallen Ranger, the Black Ranger being the last to get there.

The fallen Ranger looked severely injured, cuts, gashes and bruises everywhere. He wore black boots, black trousers and a black jacket with some red stripes across the chest. In a way, it almost looked like he was part of some military. Judging from his appearance, he was only about 5 or 6 years older than the 3 friends, with short, black hair and green eyes.

"Derek!" the Pink Ranger cried as she dived down next to him. Tristan and the others also gathered around. "If only I'd been faster." She wept.

With a weak voice, Derek spoke. "We have to... We must... Go."

"Go where?!" Tristan asked. The Black and Pink Rangers looked at the 3 civilians, knowing what they had to do.

The Black Ranger reached for his wrist and pressed two buttons. A black ring of energy surrounded the group. Before anyone could say anything, they turned into different colored balls of light and flew away, the Rangers in their respective colors, the friends in white...

In space, meanwhile, Vazon was on the bridge, where he took his helmet off and put it to one side, leaving his sword with it. One of his footsoldiers approached him.

"Energy sources have been lost. They are gone. 23% of our forces were eliminated." It exclaimed. "What would you have us do now?"

Vazon looked at it, he appeared to be holding back tears. "Standby mode. All of you." He quickly spat out as he rushed out of the bridge without another word.

"Yes sir." Came the reply as it stopped moving, as did all of them across the ship...

Meanwhile, in a secret building somewhere in the city, the Rangers and their new acquaintances materialized. The 3 friends looked around, but before they could say anything, the two Rangers, still morphed, rushed towards Derek.

The Pink Ranger looked up at the Black Ranger. "Medbay, hurry!" she cried. Nodding, the Black Ranger picked Derek up and carried him towards a door. The Pink Ranger hurried over and pressed the button to open it, rushing inside. Tristan and the others looked at each other and nodded, following them inside.

The room, just like the one they had come from, was a simple grey color. There were many complicated looking consoles lining the far wall, with various monitors scattered around the other walls. Several strange looking beds were around the room, raised to about waist height. Derek was moved over to one of them and was made to lie down on it as the Pink Ranger looked at some consoles at the end of the bed.

"How does it look?" The Black Ranger asked as the Pink Ranger shook her head.

"His vitals are dropping! He might not even survive stasis!" she replied, her tone clearly showing that she was upset

"We have to try." Came the reply.

Suddenly, Derek, who was falling into and out of consciousness, spoke. "You, kid... Come."

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at Tristan, who approached the injured Ranger as he continued speaking.

"Your name... What is it?"

"Tristan." He replied. He was shaking from a combination of fear of this unknown place, and the terrors of the battle he had just left.

With great difficulty, he reached for a device on his wrist, taking it off. The Rangers attempted to stop him, but he gave them a determined look and they backed away. Holding the device in his hand, he reached over to Tristan. "Take this. They will be able to explain." He said as the device exchanged hands without a word. The Black Ranger looked away, seemingly unhappy with the decision, the Pink Ranger simply watched on, still as a rock.

Looking up at the Black Ranger, Derek spoke once more. "You know what must be done. The others, too." He said as he started coughing once more, turning to the Pink Ranger. "Do it." He commanded.

Looking down at the floor for a few seconds, the Pink Ranger finally seemed to wake up and moved back over to the console, pressing a few buttons. A glass cover started to slide over the top of the bed, sealing him inside. A light started to come on underneath Derek.

"Everything will be... Fine." Derek said as the stasis chamber activated, freezing him in place.

Everyone stood still for a few moments before the Pink Ranger ran back into the previous room, crying. The Black Ranger approached Tristan, a black and purple light enveloping him as he demorphed into civilian form.

Tristan couldn't help step backwards, feeling slightly intimidated. The Ranger was about 6 foot tall, very broad and built like a tank, with brown eyes and jet black hair, slightly longer than Derek's. He wore a similar uniform too, but with black stripes in place of red. Tristan hoped that he'd never have to fight him, because he knew it wouldn't end well.

"Go back into the other room, make sure your friends there go too. Sit down and try not to bust anything." He said in an angry tone.

Tristan huffed. "What the hell? No need for so much aggression, I'm not the enemy!"

The Ranger moved right in front of him, his dark brown eyes piercing right through Tristan's. "Just do it." Came the reply.

Tristan stepped back and glared for a second, but realized senseless fighting would get him nowhere. "C'mon guys." He said as he walked back into the previous room with the others behind him, the door closing as they went through.

The Ranger looked on before looking back at Derek._ 'You really are the craziest guy I know.'_

In the other room, the friends couldn't help looking around. It was a fairly big room, but there wasn't much in it. On one end, there was a TV and some complex looking equipment around it with some dark blue sofas nearby. On the other side of the room was a little kitchen area; the entire room gave the impression that this was some kind of strange house of some description. There were quite a few doors around as well, but none of them gave any indication of where they went to.

The three of them sat down in silence, trying to take in everything that had happened. Tristan stared long and hard at the device that he'd been given, the final moments of the battle running through his mind again and again.

Several minutes later, the Black Ranger walked through again and sat down opposite from them. Barely a few seconds after that, one of the other doors opened and a young woman walked in, around the same age as Derek and the Black Ranger. She was about the same height as Emily, her uniform the same as the others, but with pink stripes instead. She had long, brown hair and green eyes. In her hand, she carried some kind of case. It looked like she'd been crying, but had made some attempt to make it unnoticeable.

Walking up to the others, she pulled up a table and set the case down on it before sitting down next to the Black Ranger.

"I'm sorry that we had to bring you here." She began saying. "But since you've seen Derek's face and know his name, we've been forced to explain all of this to you. However..." she started to say, looking down at the device given to Tristan, "...it appears that he has over ideas."

Pulling up her sleeve, she revealed a pink device of similar design to Tristan's red one. The Black Ranger did the same, revealing a black one.

"Just what are these things?!" Tristan asked, understandably confused.

"And is it anything to do with those freaks just now?" Glen added on the end.

The Pink Ranger shook her head. "One thing at a time, please... I understand this is all a shock for you, but believe me when I say I'm not finding this easy either. Anyway, first things first, my name is Lisa Derron, and this is Drake Maxwell. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"It's a pleasure to meet you to." The 3 friends replied in perfect time.

Drake looked away, huffing. 'It is?' he wondered.

Lisa continued. "What I'm about to tell you is highly classified and, without any doubt, must not go beyond these walls. Understood?" she asked as the friends nodded. "Good. Now, I'm sure you're aware of the burglaries that have been taking place in the city over the last few months. That man in the golden armor, the man who called himself Vazon, he's the one responsible."

"He is? But why? What's the connection?" Emily asked, surprised.

"We don't know. All we do know is this – one second he's robbing things, the next thing we know, he's attacking us with his little friends..." her voice drifted off as she spoke, thoughts of Derek's injuries once again filling her mind.

"But who is he exactly? Where'd he come from?" Tristan inquired.

Shaking her head, Lisa continued. "This is going to sound hard to believe... But we think he's from another world."

At that point, the friends gasped loudly. "Say what now?!" Glen replied.

"Well... A few months ago, a spaceship appeared near the moon, barely within range of anything on this planet that can detect it. Not long after that, the robberies started. Its energy readings also increased just before they attacked today. The logical explanation says that they have to be behind it. I think the authorities were hoping to examine the remains of some of those machines that attacked, but apparently when they left, so did any remains."

Tristan sighed. "I see... But still, I need to know, what is this thing? Why did Derek give me it?" he asked, holding the device up.

Before Lisa could answer, Drake butted in. "Are you always this impatient?" Drake asked coldly.

"Drake!" Lisa said, staring at him. Drake said nothing, turning away.

Shaking her head, Lisa carried on. "Ignore him, he often doesn't take well to anything else that lives or breathes."

At that point, Derek looked back at her but she continued to stare. Wisely, he dropped any idea of answering back and let her continue.

"Good, let's carry on. To answer that question, I think it'd be better if I explain who we are first. We're part of a highly secret defense project. Beyond us and the staff here, there are only about a dozen people here that are aware of our existence..." She paused for a second before carrying on. "...At least, that's how it was before our public appearance today was forced upon us."

Drake slammed his hands down on the table. "Look, I really don't care for the long explanations. Derek wanted you to take his place and for your friends to tag along too. Take it or leave it." He said, hissing.

There was silence for a few moments before Emily spoke. "Is that true?"

Lisa nodded. "Yes. As I said, we are part of a defense project designed to create the ultimate fighting force, in case we were ever attacked. We are Power Rangers, the results of the research."

At this point, Lisa reached for the case, flipped it open and spun it around so that their visitors could see the contents. There were 5 spaces for objects, 2 of which still had something in them. Devices, just like the other 3, lay in the case. A blue one and a yellow one.

"These are our Element Morphers. It's complicated to the point where I couldn't reliably explain them to you, but basically these allow us to change into our Ranger forms, giving us a theoretically infinite source of power. Derek included, we're currently 3 members down. We can't keep going like this, we need replacement Rangers."

"Woah, hold on there." Glen began. "You said you were 3 members short. What happened to the other 2 guys? Were they-"

Before he could finish, Drake interrupted again. "They left the team. That's all you need to know."

Lisa shot him a look, seemingly wanting to say something, but chose not to.

Suddenly, an alarm started blaring. "What?!" Lisa wondered aloud, getting up and heading over to a phone on the wall. By the time she got there, it was ringing. She picked it up. "Yes? What did you say? Understood." She hung up, running back to the table.

"Drake, apparently some kind of 'monster' has appeared. We're being dispatched to take care of it." She explained, looking at the others. "I'm sorry we can't give you more of an explanation, but we really need an answer now."

Tristan jumped up. "I'm in, no question."

Glen nodded. "You can count on me, I guess."

Emily looked at the two of them for a second before nodding in agreement. "We can't let this continue."

"Very well. Put these on." Lisa said as she took the devices and took them out of the case, giving the blue one to Emily and the yellow one to Glen. They strapped them onto their wrists and stood up.

"I can't believe I'm actually agreeing to something I barely know anything about..." Tristan began to say, "But you have my full support. Tell us what to do."

Lisa nodded. "Watch us, and do as we do." She said, looking over at Drake. "Ready?"

He nodded, "Ready!"

They reached for their devices. "Elemental Morpher! Ranger Shift!"

With that, black and pink lights surrounded their respective bodies before pulsing. When the lights cleared, they had become the Rangers. Lisa pointed to a button on the outside of her Morpher and pressed a lone button, at which point they teleported away.

The friends looked at each other and nodded. "Ready?" Tristan exclaimed.

"Ready!" came the replies.

"Elemental Morpher! Ranger Shift!" they cried, taking on Ranger form.

They couldn't help stopping for a second to look at themselves. "So, so cool." Glen commented.

Tristan looked up to see a mirror in front of him. He took a good long look at the helmet; there was a grey mouthplate, a rectangular strip of black material for him to see out of, which went around the sides of the helmet and fading into a bump on either side, and a golden fire symbol on the forehead. Apart from the symbol and the color, all the helmets were the same.

He looked long and hard at himself, knowing full well that the last person to wear this was now in stasis. _'I'll make sure I give these powers the honor and respect they deserve.'_ He thought before turning to the others.

"Let's go." He said as they nodded in response.

Reaching for their Morphers, they all pressed the teleportation button, before flying away to do battle once more, this time, as Power Rangers...


	3. Fragmented Part 3

In town, several miles away, the 5 balls of light flew down from the sky and revealed the 5 Rangers, who had arrived in a small, ruined park. A see-saw and some swings were all that remained, but they had been broken beyond repair.

Tristan looked around, but couldn't find anything. "So what are we looking for?"

"I'm not sure, it's quiet... Too quiet. Give me a second." Lisa said as she reached up to her helmet and pressed and held a switch within the bump on the right side of her helmet. Inside her visor, she could see a scanner appearing. She spent a good minute or so looking around, but failed to find anything. "I can't find anything; we'll have to look the hard way."

"Works for me." Drake said coldly as he started to run off, stopping when he heard one of the Rangers speaking.

"W-w-whoa, hold it a sec, who's in charge here?" Glen asked.

Shaking her head, Lisa began to explain. "Theoretically, the Red Ranger is designed to be the lea-"

Before she could finish, Drake rudely interrupted. "There's no way in a million years I'll be taking orders from a newbie."

Tristan walked towards him, taking offense. "Newbie? And what makes you so special?"

At that point, Drake shoved him, pushing him to the floor before walking away. "I don't give a damn what you think of me, but you're not cut out to be in charge. That being said, I'm not convinced you should be a Ranger, either. Now get up, we have people to save, move it." Wasting no time, Drake ran down the nearest street.

Lisa ran up to Tristan as he was getting up, Emily and Glen also moving in.

Tristan looked away in anger. "What's his problem?"

Lisa shook her head. "For now, forget it. He has his problems, but right now he does have a point, we can't just stand here. I'm going to go after him; you three should stay as a group and go the other way. Should you find anything, let us know right away using this button." She said, pointing at a button on their Morphers. Everyone acknowledged her and she ran after Drake.

Sighing, Tristan turned to go down the other road and muttered to himself. "Who does he think he is?"

Overhearing, Emily approached him and put her arm on his shoulder. "You can be our leader." She said with a happy tone to her voice.

Glen walked up next to them. "Yea, lead the way Cap'n!" he declared, clearly getting psyched up.

Looking back at his friends, he nodded. "You got it! Move out!" he yelled as they ran down the road...

Up on the ship in space, the bridge's door opened as Vazon stormed in with a worried expression on his face. Several of his footsoldiers were frantically rushing around, having been reactivated several hours earlier. "I hear one of the DefenseBots has gone down to the planet. I need an explanation?" he yelled at them.

One of them came up to him. "General Vazon, it appears that the energy container is malfunc-"

Before it could finish, Vazon moved around it and hurriedly walked over to a nearby door on the far side of the bridge. Opening it, there was a large glass tank with various pipes leading into it. Within it, there was a small ball of white energy. He ran up to it and put his hands on the glass.

"No!" he cried as he span around. "I don't care what it takes, I need this repaired – top priority!"

"Of course, General. Assigning orders now." It replied.

Vazon went to walk out of the room before remembering something. "Assign a squad to help the DefenseBot. I really don't understand how it reactivated itself with the energy from this tank... Never-the-less, we have to make the most of the opportunity I suppose, especially since there are still 2 of those fighters remaining..."

"Understood, dispatching several units now. Are you not joining the battle, Sir?"

Vazon paused, his mind seemingly drifting away somewhere before he dropped back into reality. "No... You wouldn't understand." He replied, walking away...

Back in the city, Lisa finally caught up with Drake. "Wait! Wait I said!"

Drake stopped running and turned around without saying a word.

"Drake..." she began to say, putting a hand on his shoulder. "...Tristan and the others, Derek must have had a reason to entrust them with the powers. Don't you trust him?"

Derek moved away, Lisa's hand falling silently. "You know I do." He said as he turned around. "It's me that that I can't." he said, walking away.

All Lisa could do was watch._ 'Drake...' _she thought as she went to follow him.

Suddenly, several missiles flew through the air, smashing into the ground around Lisa, barely avoiding her directly, the resulting explosion sending her flying.

Hearing the blast, Drake turned around. "Lisa!" he cried, running towards her. As he helped her up, they both heard a booming metallic voice.

"Enemies confirmed. Commencing elimination."

They both looked up to see some kind of humanoid machine made completely of painted black metal. It was huge, roughly twice the size of the average human. It was loaded with all manner of ranged weapons.

"What on-"Drake started to say. Before he could finish, a dozen footsoldiers teleported in.

Lisa dusted herself off before moving into a fighting stance. "These guys again?" she said, reaching for her Morpher. "Tristan, Emily, Glen, come in." she yelled as the duo rushed into battle.

As she knocked one away, she tried again. "Any of you, come in!"

Halfway across the city meanwhile, Tristan and the others had also been surprised by over a dozen footsoldiers. Tristan was handling the fighting fine, but the others, lacking his experience and training, weren't doing as well.

"We're a bit busy here! We've run into some company!" Tristan replied.

"So have we! We've also found the so called monster, and it's not looking good. Finish up and get here if you can! Summon your weapons if you need to; if you don't know them, yon can access a database using a button on the left hand side of your helmet." Lisa responded.

"Got it! Guys, you heard what she said!" Tristan yelled. Emily and Glen nodded in response and quickly scanned the databases for data on their weapons before getting some distance and holding out their hands.

"Flame Saber!"

"Earth Claws!"

"Water Scythe!"

The metallic orbs appeared as expected, and they slot them into the correct place on their belts before reaching out to grab the mist, which turned into their weapons.

The Flame Saber looked the same as it always did, the Water Scythe was a huge Scythe with a solid blue handle and a gleaming silver blade, whilst the Earth Claws were wrist attached blades that acted like an extension of Glen's arms.

"Charge!" Tristan cried as the trio rushed into battle, their confidence boosted by their new weapons.

Meanwhile, Lisa had summoned her Wind Staff whilst Drake had summoned his own; a weapon that resembled a rocket launcher – an incredibly destructive weapon known as the Void Cannon, which was black all over apart from the silver coating that covered the barrel.

As they slowly cut down the enemy forces, Vazon watched the battle from his private quarters, impressed by the Ranger's strength and determination. 'I'm surprised the Red one survived, but I'm more intrigued by the fact that the Blue and Yellow ones have returned to the battlefront. It's been too long... Don't die yet, brave warriors. Show me your strength, your courage.'

Back on Earth, Tristan and the others were slowly dealing with the footsoldiers, but they knew they were taking too long and that Drake and Lisa needed help soon.

"Wait a sec..." Tristan muttered out loud. "Guys, I just remembered something, get back!"

As they got out of the way, Tristan held his hand out. "Fireball!" he yelled, using the same magic attack that he'd seen Derek use, hitting one of the attackers directly, ensuring that he wouldn't be bothering them anymore.

Glen and Emily looked on amazed before looking on at each other, nodding and scanning the databases once more before holding their hands out.

"Wave smash!"

"Earth spikes!"

Both Rangers received their new orbs – Glen's appeared to have rocks spinning around inside it, whilst Emily's depicted the raging seas.

Slotting them into their rightful places, Glen put his right hand down on the floor, before jumping up, throwing his hand up in the air. As he did so, spikes shot up from the ground in a straight line towards the enemy group, taking out a couple of them.

Quickly following that, Emily spread her arms out in front of her for a few seconds before slamming them down into the ground, a massive wave of water appearing from water appearing from seemingly nowhere, crashing into the remainder of the enemies, wiping them out. As each of the trio's magic faded, the orbs did too.

"Sweet!" Glen shouted.

"I don't believe it!" Emily whispered.

"How did they get this stuff to work? Suits are one thing, but this is something else..." Tristan wondered aloud before turning to the others. "The others need our help. Move out, Rangers!"

"Right!" they cried in unison before all 3 teleported away.

Meanwhile, Lisa and Drake had managed to use their weapons to destroy the rest of the footsoldiers. However, they were busy trying to take care of the DefenseBot now, but they were being overpowered by the machine's weapons quite easily.

"Ready?" Drake asked his comrade.

"You know I'm ready!" she replied as they held their hands out.

"Gale Force!"

"Vortex!"

The Ranger's magic orbs appeared. Lisa's had a tornado whirling around in hers, whilst in Drake's, you could see space itself. They slot the orbs in their rightful places.

Drake held his hands up high in the air, palms facing the sky as a ball of energy started to form. Meanwhile, Lisa ran forward before bursting into a sprint, then running even faster, a pink aura surrounding her body. As she approached the machine, she came to a sudden stop, the energy she had gained shooting out in a massive ball of wind, striking the enemy directly. As she rolled aside, Drake's attack finished charging and he threw it forward, the attack rushing at deadly speed until it hit its target seconds later, causing a massive shockwave.

Just as the attack subsided, Tristan and the others teleported in.

"Awesome!" Glen exclaimed as he saw the massive dust cloud that was the result of the blast.

It appeared to be over, but it wasn't to be, which became all to clear as missiles shot out through the dust cloud as everyone dived for cover, narrowly avoiding the barrage.

"Let's use our weapon abilities!" Tristan yelled, holding out his hand.

"Don't be an idiot! You'll waste your weapons!" Drake shouted back.

"What do you mean?" Emily asked as she looked down at her Water Scythe.

"The weapons are powerful, but their energy expires for a while after those attacks are used – in simple terms, if you use it, you lose it." He replied.

"Fine! The hard way it is!" Tristan yelled as he dashed forward, Flame Saber in hand.

'Stupid little...' Derek thought as he watched Tristan try to attack the machine, Emily and Glen right behind them.

All three of them tried to strike simultaneously but were caught off guard when their attacks simply bounced off. The machine laughed as it swung its powerful arms around, throwing them aside like balls of paper.

Derek and Lisa ran up to them. "We get one chance to do this and do it right. Either you listen to me and we have a chance of walking away, or you continue to try the leader routine and watch everyone suffer. Your choice, pal." Drake commented.

Tristan knew he was right. This wasn't the time to argue, and there were far too many lives at stake to be reckless. "Fine, tell us what to do." He said as he and the others got to their feet.

"Do as we do." He replied, looking at Lisa and nodding, who in turn nodded back. They held out their hands.

"Element Cannon!" they cried in unison. An orb appeared in their hands, both of them emitting a blinding light.

Lisa gestured to the others. "Hurry, before it fades!"

The trio nodded, holding out their hands.

"Element Cannon!" they cried as they too received their shining orbs.

There was only one thing left to do, they simultaneously inserted the orbs into the right hand slot on their belts.

The new Rangers watched on in amazement as their weapons suddenly seemed to gain lives of their own, floating off the ground. The Wind Staff floated horizontally in the air, the gems on the ends spinning around to face forward. The Water Scythe was next, floating down on top of the Staff, its blade sliding down the back of it, slotting into place. The Flame Saber then joined the combination, slotting into the end of the Scythe's handle. The Void Cannon then moved underneath the new weapon, sliding towards the back. The rear of the weapon slotted in firmly against the Scythe's blade, the handle resting on top. Finally, the Earth Claws landed vertically on the Staff's handle, either side of the Scythe's own handle, before folding in and locking into a triangle shape above it.

It floated before the Rangers, and Drake stood in the center, grabbing the weapon by its handle as the other Rangers gathered around his sides, helping to aim the weapon.

"Ready or nut, bolt brain, here it comes!" Drake muttered.

"Element Cannon, fire!" the team cried as a massive beam of golden energy shot out from their new weapon.

Sensing the danger, the machine tried to get out of the way, but it's size and weight made it impossible to do so in time as the machine took the full force of the shot, blowing into pieces as the Rangers lowered the Element Cannon, which quickly proceeded to disappear, along with the glowing orbs and their weapon orbs.

"We did it!" Glen shouted, ecstatic with their victory.

"Big deal. I'm heading back to base, be sure to follow, newbies." He said in his normal, cold tone before reaching up for his Morpher and teleporting away.

"That guy is seriously starting to get on my bad side." Tristan commented, kicking some rubble.

Lisa walked over to him. "At least it's over for now. Let's head back."

Tristan was silent for a few seconds before he nodded and reached for his Morpher, everyone else doing the same. They teleported away, just as news crews and emergency services began to arrive...

Up in space, Vazon was being called by one of his soldiers. "Yes?" he asked, a surprisingly happy tone to his voice.

"General, are you not going to activate plan beta?"

He laughed. "Nonsense, we don't have the energy. Even if we did, I wouldn't waste it on something that obviously couldn't stand up for itself. Continue with your duties."

"Yes Sir!" it exclaimed as it ended the communication.

Vazon stared out of his window, gazing into space. 'Going easy on them for now is the best course of action... But I can't keep being soft on them in the future, or he will come.' He thought.

Back at the Ranger's base, Lisa had managed to calm the simmering tensions between Drake and Tristan for the moment and had everyone back around the table.

She smiled warmly. "Thank you for your help, all of you. I know that today's been a tough day and that you all have an awful lot of information to take in... That being said, I'm sure you have other questions as well, but that can wait for another day."

"It's no problem." Tristan started. "There is one question I do want to ask though... This won't be over until that Vazon guy is gone, right?"

Lisa nodded. "I'm afraid that appears to be the case, yes."

Drake leaned forward. "In other words, be ready. They could strike again at any time."

The three friends nodded. "Understood." Emily replied, catching a glance of the time as her eyes passed her watch. "Oh no! I'm meant to be home by now! My parents are going to flip! I have to get back!"

The boys jumped up in panic. "Nuts! Me too! I'm guessing you can't stay either, eh Tristan?" Glen asked.

Tristan nodded. "Oh man, late again... Sorry guys, but we really have to go!"

"Wait a damned seco-" Drake began to yell, before being interrupted by Lisa.

"Sure thing, guys. We'll see you soon, OK? Just be careful, and remember this is highly secret. Under no circumstances should anyone find out your real identities, not even your families, you hear me?" she asked in a calm tone.

The three nodded. "Right." They said in unison.

"Off you go then." She said, smiling widely.

Drake and Lisa watched on as they reached for their Morphers, teleporting away. As soon as they were gone, Drake turned towards Lisa.

"Are you absolutely out of your mind?! She will never stand for this! Even we're not allowed off base for our social lives!" he shouted.

Lisa calmly shook her head. "They're kids, Drake! And they've gone through an incredibly stressful experience..." she began to say as she looked towards the MedBay. "...And so have we. Forget protocol for now... We'll ease them in gently. I'll make sure I take full responsibility."

Unable to comprehend what she was saying, Drake huffed and stormed off, leaving Lisa sitting on her own in silence. A single tear ran down from her eye.

_'Derek...'_


	4. Acceptance

It had been three days since the city of Hawshaw Vale had been attacked by Vazon's forces. Ever since then, the attack, as well as the 5 mysterious warriors that had been responsible for successfully fighting back had been all over the news. Even as Tristan, Emily and Glen walked past an electronics shop, they could see footage of the attacks being broadcast on several of the TV's in the window.

Holding her arm up so that she could see her Morpher on her wrist, Emily began to quietly talk. "No matter how many times I look at this, no matter how often I remember the battle that day, it all still seems like a dream."

Nodding, Tristan was quick to reply. "I know. It's strange knowing that this time last week we were just normal kids with normal lives, and now-"

Before he could finish, Glen butted in. "And now we're heroes!" he said with a happy tone to his voice.

"Keep it down!" Tristan and Emily hissed at him in unison.

"Our identities have to remain a secret, remember? We can't just broadcast that to the entire neighborhood..." Tristan said, frowning.

Glen shrugged. "Oh, yeah, sorry..."

"Seriously man, what are we going to do with you?" Tristan said, smiling for a second before a slight frown emerged. "Still, it doesn't exactly feel like we're part of the team just yet..."

Emily turned her head towards him. "You mean Drake, don't you?"

Nodding, he replied. "Yeah. I mean, Lisa's a great person, as was Derek, or at least, what I saw of him. Drake on the other hand... He just seems like a real tough piece of work. Considering Derek thought highly enough of us to give us the Ranger powers, as well as him and Drake being good friends, at least according to Lisa, it just doesn't make sense that he wouldn't accept us. Even the simplest of conversations with that guy feels like an uphill battle."

"Everything will be OK... If we're going to have any chance, it'll have to." She replied.

Glen laughed. "Heck yeah! It's not as if things can get any worse right now. It all seems good to me!"

Just as he said that, several silver beams burst down from the sky, turning into the footsoldiers that the three friends had seen before. Instinctively, both sides took up fighting stances.

"These guys again?!" Tristan yelled.

"We should Morph!" Glen replied.

Tristan shot him a look of disbelief. "Did you hear anything I just said?!"

Before he could answer, their opponents charged and the friends started to fight them. During the previous days, Tristan had taught them a little of what he knew about fighting in-between school and being taught about their powers by Lisa at the base, something that clearly helped as they were doing a little better than this time, but they were still nowhere near a match for them just yet.

A few minutes passed before Drake and Lisa teleported in, already in their Ranger forms. The difference in fighting ability, as well as the obvious difference in raw power thanks to their Morphed forms was clear. Within minutes, all 6 opponents had been taken care of, their remains teleporting away as they had done before.

Lisa ran over to Tristan and the others. "Are you OK?" she asked them.

"We're fine, thank you for helping us." Emily replied.

Drake walked over. "I didn't do it for your sake. Anyway, we need to head back to base. As soon as you can, make sure you join us." He said in an almost threatening manner, teleporting away.

Lisa looked at the others, noting their annoyance. "You guys really should try not to let him bother you." She began to say, looking at the boys. "But he's right, you guys still have a lot to learn. Emily's far ahead of you guys in terms of knowledge – you need to stop slacking."

Emily giggled as Lisa teleported away, the boys just standing there, speechless...

Up in space, on his ship, Vazon looked through one of his ship's remote viewers, watching the interaction between the group. 'So it is just as I had believed... They do indeed seem to be the other Rangers, or else they wouldn't appear to be so close. Far too simple.' He thought to himself as one of his soldiers walked by, which he had decided to simply call "Troopers".

"You there, what is the status of the Energy Tank?" he asked, seemingly bored with the same question he had been asking for days.

"General Vazon, I am pleased to report that the repairs have been completed. It now works once again as normal." It replied.

Vazon couldn't help but laugh. "Pleased? Machines don't feel emotion." He said, staring off into the distance for a few moments before continuing. "What of the DefenseBot?"

"It would appear that the leaking energy somehow made its way into it's systems, reactivating it."

Nodding, Vazon took a few moments to reflect before replying. "Very well. We've given those fighters enough of a rest. Bring me the Annihilator DefenseBot immediately."

"At once, General." The Trooper replied as it walked away.

Vazon relaxed in his chair, looking out of one of the windows into space._ 'I wonder how long I can continue to get away with toying with them...'_ he wondered.

_'Father...'_

An hour later, all of the Rangers were back at Base. Deep within, Lisa, Tristan and Glen were in a small room, huddled around the computer, the boys watching as Lisa brought up several images.

"These are the Zords." Lisa began to say as the boys looked over the images; a red Dragon, a pink Owl, a black Bear, a yellow Rhino and a blue Seal. "They were originally designed as emergency weapons to be used in case of a war, but since Vazon's ship has appeared, they were rushed through production just in case he launches a direct attack. So rushed, in fact, that they were only completed a few days before you guys joined."

"That's totally awesome! I always did like Rhinos!" Glen exclaimed.

Tristan didn't comment, looking on at the Dragon Zord's picture._ 'My own... Zord...' _he thought to himself for a few seconds before his eyes drifted over to the Seal Zord.

"Wait a second, why isn't Emily here?" he wondered aloud.

Lisa couldn't help sighing. "It's like I've already told you; she's miles ahead of you guys. She's already covered most of the database. Must be a quick study."

A grin burst out over Glen's face. "Sounds about right to me!"

Leaning back against the wall, Tristan shut his eyes._ 'Where are you...?'_

Over on the other side of the base, about 10 minutes away, Emily walked into the rest area. Looking over at the seats, she couldn't help having flashbacks to when she'd agreed to be a Ranger.

Drake was also in the room, sat on one of the seats facing away from her, slowly drinking a glass of water. She felt a little uncomfortable, but she decided to try and have a conversation with him. Walking over, she sat on the seat opposite him.

He looked up, staring straight into her eyes for a few seconds. "What?"

She stayed silent for a few seconds, unsure of the best way to go about this. "How are you?"

Shaking his head, he was quick to reply. "Look, I know what you're trying to do, but I was quite fine having a quiet drink. Either you have something important to ask me, or you leave me in peace."

Looking away for a second, Emily didn't know what to think or say. _'How could anyone be so cold? We're on the same team!'_ she thought as she looked back up at him, a lone tear in her eye.

"I do have something to ask, actually. Why do you have to be so hard on us? We're trying our best!" she yelled, resisting the urge to storm off before he could answer the question.

Instead of answering however, he grunted, downing the rest of his water, slamming the glass down on the table before jumping up. "Trying isn't enough. This isn't some kind of game! This Vazon, or whatever the hell he calls himself, he means business. Unless you fully commit yourself to this, you'll wind up..."

Before he could finish, he stopped himself as he could clearly see the shock on her face. Without another word, he simply stormed away and headed out of the door.

Emily did nothing but follow him with her eyes as she watched him leave – nothing she could have thought of saying would have been enough to express exactly what was going through her mind.

In the corridor, Drake slammed his fist into the wall._ 'Damned it all!_' he thought as he looked over his shoulder, looking at the door back to the rest area. _'I deserve it... I deserve to be punished, even if it means punishing myself, but they've... They've done no wrong.'_ He hurried along the corridor, not wanting anyone to accidentally walk by him and see the silent tear falling from his eye...

Back in the computer room, Tristan and Glen were just finishing up, having learned just about everything there was to know about the Zords. Lisa swiveled around in her chair to face them, smiling as she did so. Before she could say anything however, the alarm began to sound once again, just as it had done before.

"You've got to be kidding me. Again so soon?" Tristan wondered aloud as Lisa jumped up to pick up the phone, once again ringing. After a few seconds of listening, she replied to whoever was on the other end. "I understand, we'll head there right away." She said, hanging up.

Tristan shrugged. "Just who is that, anyways?"

Shaking her head, Lisa spun around to face them. "Someone important, but it's a story for another time." She said, reaching for her Morpher. "Drake, Emily, come in, we have another confirmed attack. We have to get there right now."

"I'm on my way." Emily replied.

Moments passed without an answer from Drake, forcing Lisa to try again. "Drake, did you hear me? We're needed, now!"

There was silence again for a few seconds before he finally responded. "Copy that."

Lisa looked at the boys. "Ready?"

"Ready!" they cried in unison as the three Rangers activated their Morphers.

"Elemental Morpher! Ranger Shift!" they cried as lights surrounded them, teleporting away before they could materialize in their Ranger forms...

Deep in the middle of the city, the 3 Rangers teleported into a building site, shortly joined by the others. Looking around, Emily was the first to see their new opponent.

"Over there!" she cried, running past a half-built wall to take a closer look, the others right behind her.

As the enemy came into view, they knew they were going to be in for a rough ride. Their opponent was roughly 8 foot tall – a humanoid-like robot covered in thick, black armor. A large, spherical object was fitted onto both of its shoulders. Strangely however, it didn't seem to be attacking anything – it simply stood there, motionless.

"Is there something wrong with it?" Tristan wondered, trying to see any signs of movement.

Drake walked forward, having already summoned his Void Cannon. "Either way, it needs to go." He said, taking aim. Charging up his shot for just over a second, he unleashed the fully powered attack, the massive ball of black energy heading straight towards it.

Instead of smashing into it however, it seemingly shattered apart right before it was meant to hit. Before any of the Rangers could react, the shoulder mounted objects glowed in a bright white light for a split second before several beams of white light shot out of them, smashing straight into the Rangers and throwing them to the floor, except for Emily and Lisa who barely managed to see the attacks coming, the beams barely missing them but the force of the blasts sending them flying in opposite directions.

Lisa quickly jumped up and looked behind her, the Rangers hidden behind the dust. Looking over at Emily, who was just getting up herself, she yelled at her "Emily! Rush attack! Go!" she cried as both girls started to run at the machine, summoning their weapons as they did so. Reaching their opponent at the same time, they both simultaneously attacked. However, their attacks were somehow harmlessly deflected before a white shockwave was emitted, throwing both girls several feet away.

By this point, Tristan and they others had emerged from the dust and within a few moments, everyone had regrouped as the machine stood there, staring them down.

"What now?" Glen yelled.

"I'm not sure, it seems to be absorbing the energy of any attack that heads its way!" Lisa replied.

Tristan looked away for a few seconds before coming up with an idea. "How about force feeding it? Surely there's only so much damage that thing can take!" he said, summoning his Element Cannon orb.

"Are you insane?!" Lisa yelled at him.

She was, however, quite surprised when she noticed Drake summoning his orb too. "He may just be, but its pointless throwing the small stuff his way. Let's face it, if this doesn't work we don't have any stronger weaponry anyway."

Tristan shot a look at him, amazed by the fact that not only was Drake accepting his plan, but he was going along with it as well. Everyone else was just as stunned.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" he yelled as everyone else nodded, summoning their orbs and inserting them into place.

Once again, their weapons suddenly seemed to gain lives of their own, floating off the ground. The Wind Staff floated horizontally in the air, the gems on the ends spinning around to face forward. The Water Scythe was next, floating down on top of the Staff, its blade sliding down the back of it, slotting into place. The Flame Saber then joined the combination, slotting into the end of the Scythe's handle. The Void Cannon then moved underneath the new weapon, sliding towards the back. The rear of the weapon slotted in firmly against the Scythe's blade, the handle resting on top. Finally, the Earth Claws landed vertically on the Staff's handle, either side of the Scythe's own handle, before folding in and locking into a triangle shape above it.

It floated before the Rangers once more. Drake went to grab hold of it before looking over at Emily. "It's all yours." He said calmly.

She was surprised, as was everyone else, but she nodded and they switched places, aiming the cannon at their enemy.

"Element Cannon, fire!" the team cried as a massive beam of golden energy shot out from their weapon once more, smashing into the machine as a huge explosion erupted from the impact.

"Did we do it?!" Glen yelled as the dust cleared, their weapons fading.

His answer quickly became obvious as the machine stood there, heavily damaged, the shoulder weapons blown apart.

"Not quite, but we're close!" Lisa cried as she quickly looked it over. "It looks like Tristan's guess was right; it overloaded and couldn't take the energy..."

At the same time, Vazon watched things unfolding from the ship. "Is it working?" he asked one of the Troopers.

"Yes, General. The energy tank is reading a positive increase." It replied, entirely without emotion.

Vazon looked down to the Earth below. "It's time we fought back then. Proceed as planned." He ordered.

"Of course, General." Came the reply as the Trooper began to press buttons on the console before it.

Outside the ship, some of the lasers on the hull began to turn around, pointing directly at the Earth. It fired, a white beam firing straight onto the DefenseBot below, the Rangers covering their eyes as it was engulfed in a white light. As it did so, the light in the energy tank dimmed a little, shrinking slightly as it did so.

As the Rangers looked back, a horrifying sight awaited them – the enemy had somehow grown at least 10 times the size it was before, towering above them. To add insult to injury, it was somehow completely repaired. Even worse, it finally showed signs of movement, looking down at them as it attempted to stamp on them, the Rangers rolling out of the way just in time.

"What the hell?!" Tristan yelled in shock.

"No time for that! We should take the Zords for a trial run!" Drake yelled in response.

Nodding, Lisa held her hand out. "We've got nothing to lose. Owl Zord!" she cried as a new orb appeared in her hands, a blinding golden light emerging from it.

The others were quick to try it as well.

"Dragon Zord!"

"Bear Zord!"

"Rhino Zord!"

"Seal Zord!"

In a similar way to their weapons, a mist appeared, but this time it was far bigger than when they were summoning their weapons, floating off into the sky. When the mist expanded far enough, there was a flash of the Ranger's color and their Zord appeared from the mist, the mist itself fading quickly afterwards. As the Zords finished their appearance, the Rangers automatically teleported inside them, each one appearing in their individual cockpits.

The Rangers looked around in complete amazement. Most of the cockpit was grey, including the chairs they were sat on. Before them however was a bowling ball-sized orb in their own colors.

"Remember what you've been taught." Lisa began to instruct. "Put your hands on the ball and think the movements through in your mind. As you think it through, they'll happen."

"Right!" the others cried in unison, except for Drake who simply remained quiet.

The machine, which was still taller than the Zords, started to walk towards them, firing the beams of light from the shoulder cannons once again as the Rangers avoided them.

Emily shook her head in disbelief. "It can fire on its own now?!"

"Looks that way. Think before attacking it, the last thing we need to do is give it enough energy to make a new Grand Canyon." Drake coldly commented.

"But how are we going to manage that?!" Lisa wondered aloud as the Zords circled their opponent, the Rangers carefully considering their options whilst avoiding the constant attacks.

Suddenly, the perfect plan came to Tristan. "Guys, I think I have a plan. Lisa, give me a hand. The rest of you, prepare to attack!" he yelled as he circled the enemy and slammed into one of its shoulder cannons, grabbing hold of it tightly.

"Tristan, you're a genius! Let's just hope there is enough power with all of us combined." Lisa commented as the Owl Zord grabbed onto the other shoulder cannon. Both Rangers started to fly upwards, carrying the machine with it. As they flew up into the clouds, the other 3 Rangers focused, their orbs growing darker and darker, as if a great storm was brewing inside them.

"Now!" Tristan yelled as he let go, Lisa doing the same as they started to loop around.

"Void Beam!" Drake yelled as the Bear Zord opened its mouth, a massive beam of black energy firing out.

"Rock Throw" Glen yelled as the Rhino Zord's head moved position so it could slam it's horn into the ground as it moved before quickly moving back upwards, a massive lump of the ground flying upwards.

"Water Blast!" Emily yelled as the Seal Zord dived into the nearby lake, gulping up a large amount of water before jumping out, spitting out a massive ball of water, somehow kept in place by an invisible force.

As the three attacks rushed towards the enemy, the other Zords finished looping and were now rushing back upwards towards the machine.

"Air Cutter!" Lisa yelled as the Owl Zord's wings glowed before flapping towards its opponent, a pink stream of air rushing towards it.

"Fire Breath!" Tristan yelled as fire emerged from the Dragon Zord's mouth, rushing towards the enemy.

As all five attacks connected, there was a massive explosion as once again the machine failed to absorb all of the energy, this time entirely destroying it.

"Wahoo!" Tristan exclaimed in victory as the remains of the machine vanished before hitting the ground.

"Right on, we did it!" Glen yelled, even more excitedly than his friend.

"Excellent work, Rangers. Let's go home." Lisa said as they all teleported away, their Zords fading into mist...

In his ship, Vazon looked over to one of the Troopers. "Energy status?" he asked.

"There has been a 12% decline due to the enlarging process. Since the DefenseBot failed to-" before it could finish, Vazon cut in.

"I know, I know..." he replied, coldly. 'How could I be so careless? One thing is for sure, they're more prepared than I originally believed. Still... It's a convenient diversion. I just need more time.' He thought as he stared into space...

Back at the base, the Rangers were sat around the tables, talking, except for Drake who was just walking in. Upon seeing him, they all fell silent.

He nodded, sighing. "Talking about me, I'm guessing? I... I can't really blame you. Look, I realize that I've been overly hard on you guys, especially considering everything that has happened. I was wrong to not give you a chance, and for that, I'm sorry. You guys..." He paused before continuing, clearly finding this a difficult thing to do. "...You guys did a good job today, especially you, Tristan. I'm sure Derek's proud of you."

For once, everyone sat there speechless, but in a good way. Tristan stood up and walked over to him, holding out his hand.

"Apology accepted."

Drake chuckled, shaking Tristan's hand. "Welcome to the team. All of you."

As simple as the gesture was, it was enough to make the group finally feel like a group. Noting this, Lisa looked on as the other two new Rangers went over to Drake and Tristan.

_'We really do have a chance after all.'_ She thought, smiling to herself...


	5. Responsibility

It had been a long, tiring week for the Rangers since they had received their powerful new Zords. Whenever the Rangers weren't busy with their own lives, they were training at their base, honing their skills, learning their limits, adapting to their new situations.

As with all things, however, there was an odd one out – Glen.

"We're becoming more powerful and more awesome every day!" Glen started to say as he walked down one of the many corridors that existed within their base, Lisa and Emily walking with him. "Surely we're powerful enough by now to take down the big bad guy, especially now we have our Zords. Why don't we go up there and take him on now and end this?"

Both girls slowed to a stop and Lisa spun around to face him, an angry look on her face. "Are you crazy? Don't you remember what he did to Derek?!" she looked away from him for a second, just long enough for Emily to see a lone tear running down her face before she looked back at him. "Well?"

Glen stood there in silence, the look on his face clearly showing that he'd spoken without thinking once again.

He went to apologise, but before he could say anything Lisa spun back around and hurriedly walked away. Looking to Emily, there was no mistaking the look of annoyance on her face.

"When will you grow up?" she said in a disappointed tone as she walked away from him.

_'That didn't go down so well.'_ He thought as he watched Emily disappearing around the corner, sighing to himself. _'Then again, Em's right. I should have thought ahead. Lisa still hasn't come to terms with it I guess...'_

A few corridors away, Lisa hurried into a small room and sat down on a chair that was in front of a monitor that was rapidly displaying lots of information in several windows. Next to the monitor was some kind of small, square machine, on top of which rested a light green orb.

As she sat down, she reached for a nearby box of tissues and wiped away the tears. _'Derek...'_ she thought to herself as she slowly regained her composure.

A few moments later, Emily slowly walked into the room as Lisa turned towards her.

"Are you alright?" Emily asked.

Lisa remained silent for a few seconds before trying to reply. "What Glen said really was ridiculous but... He didn't deserve that." She said in a whisper.

Emily walked up to Lisa and put her arm around her. "You liked Derek, didn't you?"

Before Lisa could answer, Glen rushed into the room. "Lisa, I'm so, so sorry. I-I didn't mean to-"

"It's alright." Lisa replied, interrupting him. "I'm sorry too. Just promise me you won't be doing anything reckless, okay? We've lost enough people as it is." she said as her voice trailed off.

_'People? As in more than one?'_ Emily thought to herself.

"You got it." Glen replied confidently.

There was an awkward silence for a few moments before Lisa turned towards the monitor. "Let's see..."

Glen moved a little closer to the monitor, seeing the orb alongside it. "So that's what you're working on?"

Lisa shook her head. "Not me, exactly, but I have been asked to analyze its stability. Think of the orbs we use for attacks like Tristan's Fireball or your Earth Spikes. Those are powerful attacks, but they only use a minute amount of the power we have access to. What if we could access a lot more? This orb should let us, and in theory it should work, but until this is finished, we won't know if-"

Before she could finish, they all heard the bleep of their Morphers. Lisa quickly pressed the communication button on her own Morpher and spoke into it. "This is Lisa, go ahead."

They recognized the replying voice immediately, it was Drake. "Lisa, we've got trouble in town. Me and Tristan are already here but we're going to need some help. Gather the others and get here right now."

"We're on our way." Lisa replied, looking up to the others. "You heard him, ready?"

"Ready!" they replied, reaching for their Morphers. "Elemental Morpher! Ranger Shift!" the trio cried as they took on their Ranger forms. Reaching for their Morphers, Lisa and Emily teleported away.

Glen had gone to reach for his, but stopped for a moment, quickly walking over to the orb. _'If I can prove that this works...'_ he thought as he picked it up. Sensing the new orb, his Morpher reacted and he could see a database entry for it, explaining how it was used and what effects it would produce. As the entry finished displaying, the orb disappeared.

"Time to clean up!" he cheerily cried, reaching for the teleport button, turning into a ball of light and vanishing...

Arriving on the battlefield, he was instantly attacked by several footsoldiers. Looking around as he fought them, he could see that there were dozens of them all over the place and they weren't messing around. Tristan was handling his opponents with fast combination attacks, Drake was mainly fighting using throwing and kicking techniques whilst Emily and Lisa had paired up and were using their weapons.

Glen easily took care of his two attackers and turned to face the battling crowd. "Guys, leave this to me! Get clear!" he yelled.

Tristan avoided several kicks and punches before looking over at him. "You have a plan?"

"Just give me a chance!" Came the reply.

'I don't like the sound of this...' thought Emily as she dodged several attacks as she and Lisa pulled back.

"Wait! Your Earth Spikes can't stop that many!" Lisa yelled.

Glen just shrugged. "I know." He replied as he began to put his plan into action. "Power of the Earth! Ground Splitter!"

The orb began to appear in front of him, but it was immediately obvious that something was wrong; the orb wasn't glowing. Instead, the light inside it pulsed, getting brighter and brighter each time.

"No!" Lisa screamed as she realised what he had done. She tried to get to him, but the footsoldiers were so numerous that it was impossible.

Glen stood there, unable to move as the energy from the orb began to grow out of control. He grunted in pain as yellow sparks started to flash all over his suit. The fighting stopped and both sides looked over towards Glen.

A few seconds later, the light became too bright to look at and there was a high pitched screeching sound followed by a booming noise as a bright green shockwave erupted from the orb in all directions, slamming into the footsoldiers and the other Rangers, sending them flying. The sound of glass smashing could also be heard as the wave slammed into the nearby buildings.

After a few moments, the dust had cleared. The footsoldiers were gone; instantly vaporized by the blast. The Rangers had survived, but they were all lying down on the ground, motionless.

Drake was the first person to come around, struggling to stand up. As he did so, he surveyed the destruction around him. All the windows of the nearby buildings, cars and streetlights had been completely destroyed, glass shards scattered all over the place. The streetlights have been bent out of position and the nearby cars had been physically moved a few meters from their original positions.

Knowing that they couldn't stick around, he quickly ran over to the other Rangers and pressed the teleport buttons on their Morphers, returning them to base. As he ran over to Glen, he noticed that he'd demorphed.

_'You fool.'_ He coldly thought as he reached down and pressed the button, sending Glen away before reaching for his own Morpher and disappearing himself...

Up in space, Vazon had been watching events below, but now he was pacing frantically up and down the bridge. "How many units did we lose?" he barked at one of the nearby Troopers.

"All 42 units that were sent down to the surface have been destroyed. Salvaging is impossible, General Vazon."

"And the energy they were carrying?"

"Energy collected before the units were lost was minimal. Initial analysis appears to suggest that the units were lost as the result of an energy overload."

Vazon walked into the energy tank room and looked at the dim light intently._ 'So many losses for such little gain...'_

Meanwhile, back in the base, Glen's eyes shot open as he regained consciousness. He felt a bit weakened, but he was well enough to look around. He instantly recognised the room as the base's medical room. Suddenly, he heard a voice from behind him.

"Glen! Are you OK?"

Sitting up, he swiveled around to see Emily sitting on a chair near him. He felt his face go crimson with shame. "I screwed up pretty badly this time, eh?"

Emily nodded slowly. "You could say that, yeah..."

There was an awkward silence for a few minutes before Glen spoke again. "How's everyone taking it?"

Sighing, Emily began to reply. "Tristan's not exactly happy – well, less unhappy, more disappointed than anything else. Drake's storming around the place wondering what you were thinking and Lisa... Lisa feels betrayed."

"And you?" Glen asked, his voice sounding almost devoid of emotion.

Emily smiled. "Well, someone's got to try and keep you out of getting into even more trouble, right?"

Glen chuckled a bit, smiling back. "Right. Thanks Em."

Looking down, Glen realised that his Morpher was missing. "I'm guessing they don't want me teleporting away, huh?"

Emily glanced away slightly. "Since your Morpher absorbed the orb, Lisa needs to check its stability again since something went very, very wrong when you tried to use it. We can all use its powers since it's now in the system, but that doesn't make it safe to do so. She did say it'd be done soon. That being said, I don't think any of them are keen on letting you have the Ranger powers back anytime soon."

Before Glen could reply, the door opened and Drake shot in. Realising that Glen was awake, he glared right into his eyes before looking over towards Emily "We've got trouble. Vazon himself's trying to start a party. We're going to crash it. C'mon."

"W-w-wait! What about me?! If it's him there, then you'll-" Glen began to say before Drake cut him off.

"You've done more than enough damage! If it were up to me I'd let you fight him yourself, but since we're here trying to save the world, you're the last thing we need right now. C'mon Emily." He said as he reached for his Morpher.

Glen looked over to Emily, who looked upset. She mouthed "I'm sorry." to him before reaching for her Morpher too.

"Elemental Morpher! Ranger Shift!" they cried as they morphed and teleported away, leaving Glen alone...

In the city, Vazon was already fighting Tristan and Lisa in armed combat as Drake and Emily arrived.

Drake pointed towards them. "Time to rock'n'roll." He said, dashing forwards.

"Right!" Emily replied, holding out her hand. "Water Scythe!"

As expected, the metallic orb appeared in front of her, which she grabbed and slotted into her belt. The blue mist emerged and turned into her Water Scythe, which she took hold of before rushing into the battle.

Tristan and Lisa swung their weapons down from above, clashing against Vazon's sword. As the weapons locked against each other, Vazon's strength became apparent as he easily pushed them back and slashed them both with fast, effective strikes. Sparks flew from their suits as they were thrown to the ground, at which point Drake sped past them to attack Vazon with some punches, but he dodged them with easy, kicking the Black Ranger in the back before striking him with his sword before quickly spinning around and slashing Emily who was just about attack him.

Vazon looked around as the four Rangers jumped back up to their feet._ 'Either they were extremely lucky earlier or they're holding back...' _he wondered as the Rangers rushed at him once more.

Taking his sword, he pointed it towards the ground before slamming it down, piercing through the concrete before leaving the weapon standing up in the ground. Crossing his arms in front of his chest, his sword and armor began to glow in a bright golden light. As the light reached its brightest point, he flung his arms out to his sides, a pulse of golden light flying out in all directions like a shockwave, slamming into the Rangers and sending them back, once again leaving them all on the floor.

Picking up his sword, Vazon looked around as the Rangers tried to scramble back up, pointing it at each of them in turn. "An attack like that managed to wipe out many of my Troopers earlier. Tell me, why won't you use that strength to defeat me now? And where is the Ranger that performed it?"

None of the Rangers answered, but they all knew that they were in a lot of trouble. Even if they could use the attacks, there was little chance of it actually beating Vazon's monstrous strength...

Back at the base, Glen was racing through the corridors back to the research room. Running over to the monitor, he looked through the various windows until he found what he was looking for, a small message saying "ANALYSIS – 92% COMPLETE". Next to the monitor, where the orb had been earlier, lay his Morpher.

_'I can't make the same mistake again, but...'_ he began to wonder before looking over a nearby screen on the wall that showed the battle in progress. There were screens like this in most of the rooms, enabling the Rangers to keep an eye on the city no matter what they were doing.

He could see Tristan and Emily running up to Vazon, but Vazon pushed Emily aside and grabbed Tristan by his shoulder, throwing him into a nearby tree which the Red Ranger smashed through with little effort.

Looking back towards the monitor, Glen watched it tick over to 93%, his fists clenching.

_'They need me, but if it wasn't for me trying to speed things along earlier, we wouldn't be in this situation. I can't make the same mistake again. Hold on guys...'_ He thought as he desperately waited for the machine to finish its analysis.

Back in town, the Rangers were quickly being defeated by their opponent, but it almost felt like he was toying with them, never making any aggressive moves unless he was countering their own attacks. Even then, he seemed to be holding back – they all knew that if he was really trying to destroy them, he would likely have succeeded by now.

Tristan got back up to his feet, using his sabre as a support. 'This just isn't working.' He thought as he looked at the others. "Listen up! Give him everything you got!" he cried as he held his hand out. "Fireball!"

The others saw what he was planning and summoned their own attack orbs, slotting them into place.

"Wave Smash!"

"Gale Force!"

"Vortex!"

As all 4 Rangers readied their attacks, Vazon simply laughed it off, doing nothing. As all 4 attacks rushed towards him, he spun around with his sword in front of him, deflecting all of the attacks with ease.

Vazon laughed. "Is this really your best?"

Tristan grunted in anger. "Shut up!"

Gripping his saber tightly, he sprinted towards his opponent, jumping into the air to strike, an attack which Vazon dodged with little effort. Tristan continued his assault with a frantic combination of kicks, punches and saber attacks, but he blocked them all before grabbing Tristan's saber blade with his free hand, using his strength to swing the saber to his side, the movement forcing Tristan to let go of his weapon as he hit the ground and rolled away.

As Tristan got back up, Vazon flipped the saber in the air, catching it by the handle, chuckling. "This is a fine weapon, but it's the wielder that makes it effective, watch!"

He dashed towards Tristan, wielding both his own sword and Tristan's saber. Tristan tried to dodge the incoming frenzy of attacks, but he couldn't avoid being hit several times by both weapons before he was kicked back.

"Tristan!" Emily cried as she and the other Rangers rushed towards Vazon, weapons in hand except for Drake who was still relying on hand to hand combat. They tried their best, but they were quickly overpowered and took multiple hits from their dual-wielding opponent, sending them to the floor once again, but this time they were too weak to get back up.

Vazon looked towards the Red Ranger, who was struggling to stand up. "Tristan, is it? You can have this back now." He said coldly as he raised the Ranger's saber in the air, swinging it forward, throwing it at the Red Ranger. Tristan was too weak to attempt avoiding it and it struck him in the chest, making him collapse. Red lightning shot from his suit for a few seconds before he demorphed, his saber disappearing along with his suit.

Looking at the other Rangers, still lying on the ground, Vazon laughed. "So, who's next? Or maybe your yellow friend will come to die first?"

Lisa looked up at their enemy._ 'It's over...'_

In the research room, Glen had been watching as the battle went from bad to worse. "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon..." he said restlessly as the program ticked over to 99%. A tear ran down his face as he slammed his hands down on the desk. "Damn it! If anything happens to them, I'll never forgive myself!"

At that point, as if the computer had heard his thoughts, it finally reached 100%. The screen turned green as all of the windows disappeared and were replaced by a new one, which read "ANALYSIS COMPLETE. SYSTEMS STABLE."

Glen smiled. "Stable? Does that mean I can use it after all?" he wondered aloud as he quickly put his Morpher back on. "Either way, I can't let this end here. Elemental Morpher! Ranger Shift!"

The yellow light surrounded him as he morphed into his Ranger form before teleporting away as fast as possible, not wanting to waste a second, the screen showing Vazon walking towards Lisa...

As he stood over her, he pointed his sword at her. "You're next."

"No! You are!" Glen yelled as he ran towards his fallen friend.

Vazon looked up to see the Yellow Ranger running towards him, having already summoned his Earth Claws. The Ranger jumped towards him, shoulder barging him away from Lisa before landing and beginning to attack with a variety of combinations with his claws. He was, like the others, no match for Vazon, but it got him away from Lisa whilst still keeping him at a safe distance from all the others.

Lisa looked up at Glen. "But... The scan..."

He looked down at her. "Don't worry, it finished. I'm playing this by the book from now on. This is my mess, I'll find a way to fix it. I have to." He said, turning back towards Vazon.

Vazon chuckled. "It's about time you showed up. Show me your power!"

Glen nodded slowly. "You got it. Power of the earth! Ground splitter!"

Holding his hand out, the bright green orb appeared once more, this time without problems, before he grabbed it and slotted it into the right slot on his belt. The orb started to glow in a magnificent yellow light, his claws beginning to glow in the same color. He slammed his claws into the ground, the concrete cracking in a circle shape before him, about a meter wide. He yelled angrily as he pulled his claws out of the ground at an angle as the concrete circle separated from the ground, flying towards Vazon. Glen charged towards the flying concrete, his entire suit glowing in a yellow light as he suddenly shot forwards at an amazing speed before jumping towards the concrete, thrusting his claws at it as he broke straight through it, the force splitting the concrete into hundreds of pieces which all flew straight at Vazon, Glen himself following the attack through with a highly powerful slash attack.

Despite his incredible battle prowess before this point, Vazon had no chance of dodging the attack and he took the full blow, sending him flying into the side of a building several meters away from where he had been standing before falling onto the ground.

Glen came to a stop just behind where Vazon had been standing. "How's that for power?"

Everyone looked on in sheer amazement, unable to believe what they'd just seen.

_'That's one hell of a move.'_ Drake thought.

"It worked!" Lisa wondered aloud.

Emily smiled. 'You did it, Glen.'

Tristan just smiled.

The orb vanished and Glen returned to normal as he watched Vazon getting back up. "You want some more?"

Sheathing his sword, Vazon shook his head as a small part of his shoulder armor fell away, broken. "You've shown me your power... And soon you'll know mine." He said as he picked up the armor scraps before teleporting away.

Glen watched him leave before helping the others teleporting back to the base...

Not long after, all of the Rangers were in the medical room, tending to their injuries, except for Glen, who had gone to get more supplies from one of the storerooms.

Emily looked up at the others. "I know he messed up but... He did come through for us in the end, right?"

Drake huffed, but Lisa nodded. "I took a quick look at the results of the scan just after we got back. It looks like using it the first time actually helped to adapt the orb to our systems, which is why it worked properly the second time. He made a terrible mistake, there's no doubting that, but he's also helped us out quite a bit."

Tristan laughed. "I've known him for a long time, and that just seems to be how it is with him. It looks like he's finally learnt his lesson, even if we are on Vazon's radar now more than ever, but-"

"We can't beat him." Drake interrupted. "Even with all of the powers we have at our disposal, including these newest ones, we're no match. If he wanted to, he still could have beaten the kid up and killed all of us if he really wanted to after that attack. He wasn't that injured."

Tristan nodded. "That's true. The question is though, why didn't he? Ever since his first appearance, it's like he's trying to do as much damage as possible without finishing us off. It's like he's playing with us, but still taking it really seriously. I just wish I knew what his real plan is."

Emily looked towards him, confused. "Real plan?"

"Yeah. Think about it; if his plan was just to get rid of us, he wouldn't have toyed with us for so long. No, I think there's more to this than simply taking over the world or whatever other obvious scheme we could think of."

Before anyone else could answer, Glen walked in with a box of supplies. "Here's the stuff you wanted." He said, lacking his normal cheerful tone. As he put the box down, they could all see something else lying on top of it; his Morpher.

Emily jumped up, clearly surprised. "Glen?"

Glen looked away. "It's been fun and all, but I don't think I'm cut out for this. I'm a liability."

Tristan walked over to him. "Woah, hold on there, not so fast."

Glen shook his head. "If I hadn't messed up earlier, you guys wouldn't have been attacked by Vazon. Watching you guys getting ripped apart on the monitors made me feel something I never, ever want to feel again."

Without saying a word, Emily walked over and hugged him for a few seconds before backing away. "You stuck around to fix your mistake. That's all that matters."

"She's right." Lisa added. "I thought for a while there that we'd not make it out of there alive, but here we are." She said, looking over to Derek, who was still in stasis. "We all have our reasons for fighting. I'd say you've found yours, right?"

Tristan nodded. "We're all in this together now, no matter how bad this gets. Whenever Vazon shows up again, we'll be ready."

"Besides..." Drake began to say with a grin on his face, "...you might be a liability, but you're our liability. Besides, that was an impressive display you put on back there. I'll be wanting to see it again at some point. Just make sure you get the right target."

Glen smiled, slowly reaching for his Morpher and putting it back on once more. "Thank you, guys. I won't let you down."

As the Rangers laughed and started to get back to normal, Vazon was sat in his chair on the ship's bridge, staring at the broken piece of armor, thinking.

_'They're improving far faster than I predicted. That just makes it all the better for me...'_


	6. Truth Part 1

"And what's a coward like you doing here?"

Drake spun around, trying to find the source of the all too familiar voice, a look of fear across his face, but he couldn't see her. He couldn't see anything at all other than the pitch black darkness that surrounded him. Continuing to walk onwards, another familiar voice rang out.

"What's the matter, you afraid?" came the young man's voice.

Drake looked all around him until he heard both voices speaking in perfect synch behind him. "You know it'll happen again."

He yelled in terror as he jumped, quickly turning around to see the morphed Yellow and Blue Rangers.

"Stop it!" he cried as the two Rangers slowly began to walk towards him.

"But this time..." The Blue Ranger began to say, letting her fellow Ranger finish.

"...To you." The Yellow Ranger stated in a cold tone.

Drake started to walk backwards, away from them, as they slowly continued towards him, chanting.

"To you, to you, to you, to you, to you..."

Drake started backing up faster and faster as they came closer and closer to him until he suddenly felt himself bumping into someone behind him. Quickly turning around to see who it was, his eyes widened in horror as he saw the Red Ranger before him.

"Failure. Failure. Failure." He repeated over and over as all 3 Rangers closed in on Derek.

"No!" he yelled as everything went black...

Drake yelled out loud as his eyes flung open and he jumped up. Wiping away the sweat from his forehead, he looked around whilst trying to slow his breathing down to normal. He was in the leisure room within the base.

'_That damned dream again... Must've fallen asleep.'_ He thought as one of the doors opened. Turning around, he saw Emily running into the room, looking alarmed. Seeing him, she ran over to him.

Looking right into his eyes, she spoke in a concerned tone. "Drake, are you alright? I heard you yelling."

Drake sighed, sitting back down. "I'm fine, just drifted off. I guess something startled me."

"Sounded more like waking from a nightmare to me." Emily replied, sitting down opposite him. "Talk to me, tell me what's botheri-"

"I said I'm fine!" Drake yelled, slamming his hands down on the table before quickly getting up and walking away.

Emily sighed, watching him walk after the room. He might have been trying to sound intimidating, but she wasn't afraid of him. She never had been. _'You can't run from it forever.'_ she thought, having seen the emotion in his face.

'_You're hurt by something, aren't you?'_

Up in space, meanwhile, Vazon entered the bridge, looking over towards one of the nearby Troopers. "Trooper, give me an update on the repairs. How many systems have you restored?"

"Yes, General Vazon. We have finished repairing the Isolator Beam as you have requested. Repair work has also begun on the main weapon systems." The Trooper replied in its normal robotic tone.

"What of the Disrupter Rifles?" Vazon asked, an irritated tone to his voice.

"The Rifles use a specific type of energy that isn't readily available in this galaxy and the only generator capable of producing it on this ship is damaged beyond repair. We have been able to transfer the energy from all the rifles into a single one, giving it almost full power."

Vazon sighed. "Understood." He replied, walking towards the window. _'I only have one chance at this...'_ he thought, walking back over towards the Trooper. "Ready an attack force. Make sure they take the rifle."

"Yes, General Vazon." Came the reply as the Trooper left the room...

Within minutes, two dozen Troopers were in one the several parks in town, running towards any people they could find. Naturally, anyone that saw them quickly ran away as fast as they could manage. A few minutes later, one of the Troopers noticed the 5 coloured balls of light that they were expecting to see approaching their position as all of the Troopers began to move towards the location as the lights turned into the 5 Rangers.

"There's not as many as last time." Tristan commented, "Hit 'em hard and hit 'em fast!"

"Right!" everyone said in unison, charging forward.

As the fighting broke out, another Trooper teleported in, far out of sight, equipped with the Disrupter Rifle. Crouching down, it looked down the scope as it started trying to get a good aim on the Rangers...

"Take this!" Drake yelled as he slammed into one of the Troopers, knocking it to the floor before he connected a kick with another approaching attacker. Just as he did so, a shot flew straight past him, the source coming from the distance. Quickly looking around, he saw what the others had seen – Emily had been hit by the shot, sending her to the floor. Seconds later, another shot was fired, hitting her Morpher.

"Emily!" Drake yelled as he took out another Trooper. Before he or anyone else could run over to her as she got back up, another shot rang out, this time connecting with Drake's Morpher. He hissed as he felt a brief pins and needles sensation in his arm, before finally seeing the Trooper that was firing on them, but there was too much going on to break away from the main group.

Taking aim once more, the Trooper took one more shot, this time at Tristan, but by this point they were fully aware of its presence and the shot missed completely. Having run out of ammunition, the Trooper put the rifle on the ground, which was quickly beamed back to the ship before it ran to join its comrades in the battle.

By the time it got there however, most of the Troopers had been taken out – it saw Tristan coming towards it and tried to fight, but there was nothing it could do as the Ranger delivered a powerful combination of blows, removing it from the fight.

As was normal by this point, the Rangers watched as the remains of the Troopers were teleported away before Tristan, Glen and Lisa gathered around Drake and Emily.

"Are you two alright?" Tristan asked as they both nodded in response.

"Just what was that? They've never used ranged weapons before now..." Lisa wondered aloud.

"We can think on it later. Right now, let's get back to base before we attract too much attention." Drake replied.

Everyone agreed, reaching for their Morphers, pressing the teleport button. The 5 Rangers turned to balls of light once more before flying away. For some reason, however, Drake and Lisa were sent in a different direction...

On his ship, Vazon was looking at a virtual map of the Earth, following the two Ranger's movements on the screen. "They're slowing down now; they must be stopping at this island." He said, pressing his finger against the screen at the location before looking over to one of his Troopers. "The plan is working perfectly. Wait for them to land, then fire the Isolator Beam on that location." He ordered.

"Yes, General Vazon." Came the reply.

Going back to studying the map, a smile crept over Vazon's face. _'If I take out all of them, then my plan will be ruined, but if I can just take care of two of them, I can buy myself some time.'_ He thought...

Back at the base, the Rangers returned and demorphed, but very quickly they realised that something was wrong.

"Where's Emily and Drake?" Tristan asked, looking puzzled.

The three of them looked around, but there was no sign of them anywhere. Their confused faces quickly turning to those of worry.

Lisa reached for her Morpher. "Drake, Emily, if you can hear this, please respond."

There was an awkward silence for a few seconds before Lisa tried again. "Drake, Emily, can you hear me?"

Glen shook his head. "I can't get through to them either. Any luck Tristan?"

"Not a thing. Where could they be?" he said, sighing...

Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, Drake and Emily were also trying to contact their friends.

Drake hissed, lowering his Morpher. "It's just no good. Can't get through at all." Not hearing a reply, he looked over at Emily, who was staring into space. "Emily, are you all right?"

Hearing her name, Emily snapped out of her daydream-like state, looking at her teammate and nodding. "I'm fine, thank you. I'm just wondering how this happened... The only thing that makes any sense is that those shots had something to do with it."

Drake nodded. "I'd say that's a fairly good assumption, but wh-"

Before he could finish, there was a bright white flash in the sky. Before either of the Rangers could comment on what they were seeing, they saw familiar looking beams of light coming down from the sky. Seconds later, there were 6 Troopers in front of them, forcing both Rangers back into defensive stances.

"Morph?" Emily asked.

"Morph." Drake replied, reaching for his Morpher.

"Element Morpher! Ranger Shift!" they cried.

A fear quickly filled them both when they realised that their Morphers didn't seem to be working at all. They both looked at each other, realising that they'd have to fight without the powers that they'd relied on until this point. Drake nodded slightly, to which Emily nodded back as they charged forwards into the group...

"Excellent." Vazon began to say, watching the battle from the comfort of his ship. "Trooper, how many Defencebots do we have left?"

The Trooper turned to face him. "We have 3 left, General Vazon. However, one of them is damaged and currently non-functional."

"Damaged? Why didn't you inform me sooner? Fix it at once!" Vazon yelled in anger.

"Yes, General Vazon." Came the stock reply.

Before it could leave, Vazon stopped it once more. "Whilst your down there, prepare the Guardian model for deployment."

The Trooper once again replied with its standard answer, but Vazon was too lost in thought to notice. _'There is little doubt that he will contact me soon. I must be prepared...'_

Back on the island, the two powerless Rangers were having great difficulty beating their opponents. Emily was using the many trees that were on the beach in an attempt to avoid the attacks of her attackers, whilst Drake was trying to fight them directly but even with his fighting abilities he just wasn't strong enough to damage their metallic bodies, most of his attacks harmlessly bouncing off.

He couldn't keep it up forever however and a kick to the stomach sent him flying into a nearby tree.

Seeing her friend surrounded, Emily rushed over to him. "Are you alright?"

Clutching his chest, he accepted her help to stand up. He frantically looked around for a solution, knowing that fighting them would be impractical and impossible. Fortunately, he quickly found something that might just do the trick – a large branch half buried in the ground.

'_Hardly practical, but I'll manage.'_ He thought. "Emily, do you think you can keep them busy for a minute or so?"

Emily nodded. "If you have a plan, sure! Just be quick!"

"Got it." Drake replied as he bolted through the attackers towards the branch, beginning to pull it out of the ground. Predictably, half of them followed him, but he could worry about that when he had a weapon.

Fortunately, he was able to free it from the ground just as they approached. It was nearly as long as he was tall, leading it to be a bit unwieldy as a result, but he was able to use it for what he needed. Using strong strikes, he was able to beat all three of them with relative ease. Looking up however, Emily wasn't doing as well – she was surrounded and getting attacked from all sides. Wasting no time, Drake rushed forward, smashing one of them into pieces before handling the other two in a more controlled manner. Shortly afterwards, their remains vanished as normal.

Drake threw the branch aside, looking towards Emily who had collapsed against the tree. Running up to her, he crouched down beside her. "Are you hurt?" he asked, sounding genuinely concerned for the first time.

She looked up at him smiling, but the pain shone through on her face. "I'll be alright in a bit."

Putting his arm around her, he helped her up. "Yea, you will. It'll be dark in a few hours and we don't know how long we'll be out here for. That and who knows when the metal circus will be back again."

"Good idea." She said as they began to head into the hills...

Back at the base, Lisa had been on the phone to their mysterious contact once more, Glen was pacing up and down in worry and Tristan was leant against the wall in the leisure room, lost in thought. _'Where have you guys gone? Emily. be safe.' _

At that point, Lisa walked in. "Tristan. I'm sorry to say this but there isn't a single clue that can help us locate them right now... I know it's a lot to take in, but you and Glen should head home for the night. Your parents will be worried."

Tristan shook his head, looking agitated. "Our parents? What about Emily's? What on Earth are they going to think?"

"That's already been taken care of; I've just finished speaking to her mother and she believes that she's staying at a friend's house. We're just going to have to make sure we find them by the end of tomorrow." Lisa replied.

Unsatisfied by the answers she'd told him, Tristan grunted in annoyance. "And what if we don't find them? What then? We can't keep lying to people forever."

"And we can't let anyone who doesn't absolutely need to know about the Ranger programme either. I'm sorry but that's just the way it is, you were told all about that when you signed up. Now find Glen, go home and leave this to me – I'll keep looking until I find them."

Tristan remained silent for a few seconds. He knew he couldn't keep debating this forever. "Alright. But I'll be back here the first second I can." He said, walking out of the room to find Glen.

Watching him leave, Lisa's heart sank. _'I'm sorry. I wish I had better news. But I swear right now I'm not losing them too...'_

On his ship, Vazon had been cleaning his sword, preparing himself for the battles yet to come. Looking up, he started issuing orders. "Trooper, I'll be heading down to the planet again shortly. Prepare the Defencebot and begin attacking that town at dawn if I haven't returned by then."

"Yes, General Vazon. We await your victory." It replied.

Vazon looked at his sword, seeing his reflection in the otherwise damaged blade, his mind filled with thoughts about his task. _'There is no turning back from this. It may not be right, but this is the only path I can travel now.' _Deep inside, he knew that this would just be the beginning...

Back on the island, the two Rangers had been able to find a small cave-like space in the hills where they had set up a very basic camp; a fire, on which was cooking some fish that Drake had been able to catch in a nearby river. Nearby, there were some more branches for defensive purposes, although they were smaller and easier to handle than what Drake had used earlier.

Emily watched the sun set as Drake returned with some more wood for the fire.

"That should do it." He said as he put the new wood on top of the old. "How are you feeling?"

Emily smiled, grateful for the concern. "I'm good, thank you. Why don't you sit down? You've done enough for the moment."

Drake smiled, knowing that she was right. As he sat down, he too looked up at the sunset. "Looks good, doesn't it?" he commented.

"Yea, it does." She replied, looking over at him. He seemed understandingly troubled – she felt like she had to take his mind off it. "Since we're here, we might as well get to know each other a bit better. Tell me about yourself."

Drake laughed a little. "I guess. What do you want to know?"

"Well... How old are you?"

Drake seemed a little surprised. "That's an... Interesting question. 19. You?"

Emily's eyes widened in shock. "Really? You look like you're in your 20's! Um... I'm 18"

"That's cool. Anything else?"

She giggled, amused by his straight to the point style, something which made him feel a bit embarrassed. "How'd you end up being a Ranger?"

Sighing, Drake took a while to reply, as if he had to think about it. "Derek's a close friend of mine; I got to know him since his family are friends with ours. He had signed up to the military and they were looking for additional people to fill up the squad. I was his first choice. That was about 6 months ago now. Lisa joined afterwards and..."

As he trailed off, Lisa looked at him, he almost looked upset. "And? What about the other two Rangers? They must have been around for a bit before you left, right?"

He looked at her, almost giving the impression that it was a subject that he really didn't want to talk about. Nevertheless, he had to talk about something. "The previous Yellow Ranger was a guy called Nick Simmons, the Blue Ranger was called Eleanor... Eleanor Bird."

At this point she noticed that a tear was running down his face. It was painful to move, but she moved closer towards him. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"It's nothing. This is just something I don't want to talk about." He said, shaking his head.

Emily was confused. "Why? Is it because they left? What happened?"

"I said I don't want to talk about it!" he snapped, jumping off and walking away.

"Wait!" Emily cried, but it didn't stop him from walking away.

'_I'm sorry, Emily.' _he thought as her yelling got quieter and quieter. _'I want to tell you, really, I do. But then what would you think of me?'_ He leant against a tree, staring out to the ocean.

Whilst he was stood there, however, he failed to notice a golden ball of light heading down towards the beach where they had been only hours earlier. There was a small flash of golden light, which revealed itself to be Vazon.

Looking around the immediate area, he couldn't find any signs that they were nearby. He pulled a scanning device off of his belt and attempted to use it to find them, but there was no reaction. _'So the jamming effects our equipment as well... No matter, I'll find them the hard way.'_ He thought as he began to talk into the hills, knowing that they'd want to find some shelter for the night.

Meanwhile, Drake heard a noise behind him, spinning around to check what was causing it. It was Emily, staggering over to him. "You should be resting..." he said, concerned.

"Don't worry about it. It's fine. I'm more worried about you." She replied. "I can see something is upsetting you, please, just talk to me. What made them leave?"

He looked her in the eyes and she gasped in shock – he was crying. "I've... I've lied to you all. They never quit." He answered.

She looked confused. "What do you mean, they never quit?"

Looking to the floor, he quietly replied. It was about a month ago, not long after all the stuff with the warehouses began. We were sent to one that was being robbed at the time, but when we got there, we found Vazon, who split us up. I ended up with Nick and Eleanor. They hadn't been in the unit for long, so Derek asked me to protect them in case we ran into him."

He collapsed against the tree, sinking down to the floor. Emily sat down beside him, quietly encouraging him to continue.

"I think Derek had hoped that he'd find that guy first, but we ran into him instead. I tried... I really tried, but I couldn't stop him." He continued, his voice trembling more and more as he talked.

Realising what he meant, Emily gasped in shock as he carried on. "This is... This is why I was so hard on you all. First it was them, and then I got there seconds too late to save Derek too, but at least we have a chance to save him still. You guys just aren't ready for this... I don't want to lose anyone else!"

Emily said nothing, simply listening in stunned silence.

"As Rangers we may be strong, but their deaths made me realise that we're not invincible. They were good people, living good lives! This didn't have to happen! I could, and should have saved them!" he yelled, becoming somewhat hysterical. Without either side saying another word, Emily moved forward and hugged him tightly.

"It's not your fault, you did your best." She whispered. In those few moments, her respect for him skyrocketed. _'He's been trying to protect us all along, in his own way._ _He hasn't even had time to properly deal with it himself...'_

As she held him, she couldn't help noticing tears flowing down her face as well.

The tears weren't to last however as she heard something behind them. Looking over her shoulder, she jumped when she saw someone standing there. It was Vazon, sword drawn and ready to fight. Drake noticed him as well. He said nothing, but it was clear that he couldn't hold back the thirst for vengeance for long, with or without his powers.

Vazon stepped forwards a few steps so that they could see him properly in the quickly approaching darkness. "I wish that hadn't happened either, but I'm out of options." He began to say as he pointed his sword at the pair.

"And so are you."


	7. Survival Part 2

"Damn you!" Drake yelled at Vazon. "There are always options! Always choices! This is mine!" he cried as he bolted past Emily towards Vazon, launching into a blazing combination of punches and kicks. Vazon perfectly dodged and blocked every blow.

'_Impressive. If he could access his powers right now, he might have been a challenge.' _Vazon thought as he effortlessly avoided Drake's attacks. After a few seconds, he finally got bored and almost carelessly swung his arm out to the side, roughly catching Drake in the stomach, sending him flying to the ground as Emily rushed over to him.

"Drake! Are you alright?" she asked, noticing that Vazon was slowly walking towards them. He looked a bit dazed by the blow, but besides that he was alright. Helping him up, the two of them slowly backed away.

"Emily, I'm sorry. I guess this is it... The end I deserved." Drake muttered.

Emily glanced over at him. "I don't plan on dying here, and I'm not letting anything happen to you, either!"

Before Drake could respond, they both heard Vazon's piercing laugh. "I'm afraid that's not going to be on the agenda. It's unfortunate, but some things just can't be avoided." He said as he held up a fist, glowing a golden light.

"Run?" Emily said, looking back over towards Drake.

"Run." Drake replied as they both took a few steps back before they turned around and started running between the trees, Drake supporting Emily, who was still injured, frantically dodging the incoming balls of golden energy...

Back at the base meanwhile, Lisa sat at one of the many computer terminals within the base. She was trying to look at the screen, but her vision kept blurring over. Yawning, she knew that she needed to sleep sooner or later. _'Not yet... I can't stop now.'_ She thought as she rubbed her eyes and continued to scan the screen, which showed a map of the world, as well as numerous details about various things.

'_I know you're out there somewhere...'_

She started to drift off a little bit, but she quickly jumped back to life when she heard the only phone in the room ringing. Wasting no time, she quickly picked it up. "Did you find anything?" she asked.

"Yeah, or at least, I think I have. I'm sending through some co-ordinates now – tell me what you see." Came the reply, the voice of a woman.

Lisa looked towards the screen as a new window appeared, listing the co-ordinates as expected. Typing the co-ordinates into the computer, the map scrolled over to a small island. She took a quick glance at it, but she couldn't see anything.

Confused, Lisa began to talk down the phone once more. "I don't see anything. Nothing at all."

"Keep watching." The woman replied.

Turning her attention back to the screen, Lisa waited for a minute or so before she noticed something – a very small, very brief white flash on the screen above the island. The flash represented an energy reading.

"What is it?" Lisa asked.

"I'm not sure." Came the reply. "One thing I do know however is that the reading seems to be some kind of energy disturbance, but for the moment I can't say exactly where it's coming from."

Glancing over to her Morpher, Lisa continued talking. "Well now I know where they are, now would be a good time to go and get them before they get into any more trouble."

The woman replied once more, this time with a stern tone in her voice. "Don't even think about it. That field seems to interrupt any kind of technology that isn't adapted to it. If you attempted to teleport in there, you'd be instantly vaporized. I wouldn't suggest trying to pass through the field normally, either. I can't guarantee its safe. Look, something's come up and I have to get to work on it. I'll say it again – don't even think about it. Wait until I can find the source."

Lisa sighed, a look of discontent spread across her face. "If you say so. Try not to be too long, Katie. Anything could be happening out there."

"Of course. Listen, they're going to be fine. We're not losing anyone else." Katie replied, hanging up.

Putting the phone down, Lisa sat there, staring at the monitor. _'I can't give up now.'_ She thought, moving over so she could reach the keyboard, starting to search for more clues...

Meanwhile, Drake and Emily were still evading Vazon, having briefly hidden out of the way, crouching behind some large rocks.

"We have to work out how to get out of here." Drake whispered.

Emily nodded. "I'm sure the others are trying to come up with a way to help. I think we should give them some more time. It's not like we have any other choice."

Drake shook his head. "I guess you're right. It's not like he's going to give us a break, either."

Peeking over the top of the rocks, Emily caught a brief glimpse of Vazon approaching before she quickly ducked back into hiding. "Why don't we split up?"

"Are you insane? You're hurt. If he went after you, you'd have no chance." Drake hissed.

"Give me a better suggestion." She replied firmly.

Seeing she wasn't going to take no for an answer, as well as recognising that they had no more time to deliberate, he nodded. "Give me 10 seconds, then run." He ordered, watching her nod in response. Wasting no time, he dashed out from behind the safety of their cover and rushed towards Vazon.

Hearing the Ranger approaching him, Vazon turned to face his attacker. Drake rushed forwards with a flurry of strong punches and other hand techniques, but as expected, Vazon had no difficulty overpowering him, quickly forcing his attacker to go on the evasive as he responded with his own attacks.

Meanwhile, Emily watched the fight in progress and having counted to 10, she stood up and started to run, or at least as much as her injuries allowed, in the opposite direction, looking backwards at Drake briefly. "Stay safe!" she muttered under her breath before continuing.

Seeing her fleeing in the corner of his eye, rolled away from Vazon's assault, leaping back up with a slight smile on his face, which annoyed his pursuer.

"Why smile, Ranger? Very shortly, you will be nothing more than a memory." He taunted, reaching for his sword.

"Maybe, maybe not. Catch me if you can, big guy!" he said, smirking before turning and sprinting away.

Hissing, Vazon hissed and went to follow before realising that the Blue Ranger had seemingly disappeared. _'I see... I fell for their ploy. No matter.'_ He thought, reaching for a small device that was kept on the side of his belt, a silver device roughly as a big as a playing card. Holding it up to his face, covered by his helmet, he pressed a button on the front.

"This is Vazon. Begin the attack immediately, do not wait until dawn. I repeat, begin the attack immediately."

"It shall be done, General Vazon." Came the Trooper's reply.

Putting the device back where he got it from, he began to hunt down the Rangers...

In the middle of Hawshaw Vale's silent streets, the Defencebot and a dozen Troopers arrived. This Defencebot was unlike anything that the town had seen so far – it looked like a human-sized metal spider, with a dome on top of it that was covered in spikes. As the city slept, the robotic army began to move forward.

A few streets away, Tristan was out walking, unable to sleep. He slowly walked the streets aimlessly, lost in thought. _'I have to keep believing they're ok. There's no other choice.'_ he thought, trying to keep himself motivated. Suddenly, he heard the sounds of smashing glass and a car alarm going off in the distance. _'What the...?' _he wondered, running off in the direction of the noises.

It took him a minute or so to find the source of the noise – Vazon's attacking forces. Upon seeing them, his heart sank. _'Now? You've got to be kidding me!'_

Ducking back out of sight, he reached for his Morpher. "Glen, Lisa, come in."

Seconds passed, but no answer came. He tried twice more without success. Knowing Glen, he'd probably paced up and down until he fell asleep. As for Lisa, he could only guess. The look on his face said it all – this was a bad day just waiting to get worse.

"Guess I have no choice." He said. "Elemental Morpher! Ranger Shift!" he cried, transforming into the Red Ranger, running into action.

As he approached the attacking forces, he saw that the spikes on top of the spider were more than just spikes – they could be fired out of the dome and were attached to chains, moving around as if they had a life of their own.

Wasting no time, he held out his hand as he continued to run. "Flame Saber!" he yelled as the metallic orb appeared in his hand. Slotting it in place, his sword appeared and he grabbed it, charging into the first few Troopers, taking them out with ease as the rest of the attackers turned to face him as he slowed to a stop, gripping his Saber tightly. "Get out of my town!" he yelled as he swiftly dispatched two more of the Troopers as they ran at him.

What he failed to notice however was that the Defencebot had launched one of its spikes at him, the chain wrapping around his ankle. By the time he noticed, it pulled tightly and he fell flying backwards as he dropped his Saber, hitting the ground before being dragged along at some speed before being flung past the Defencebot, at which point it released him, sending him flying into one of the nearby parked cars. Quickly looking up, he saw three more spikes soaring through the air towards him. Rolling out of the way, he noticed that the spikes had buried themselves into the side of the car and was now throwing it in his direction. Jumping aside, he barely avoided being hit by the full force of the car.

Jumping up, he ran towards his Saber. _'Of all the times I could use a hand...'_ he thought...

Back at the base meanwhile, the phone was ringing, but no-one was answering. Lisa was in front of the computer terminal, having fallen asleep. The phone stopped ringing for a few seconds before ringing once more, this time bringing her around.

"What time is it?" she wondered aloud, unwilling to believe she stopped working before a solution to their problems could be found. Reaching over the phone, she picked it up.

"Katie? Have you found anything?" she asked in a worried tone.

"Yes, and I think I'll have a solution shortly, but you need to head into town right now. Vazon's sent an attack force into the city and Tristan's currently holding them off on his own. You have to assist him right now." She replied.

Lisa shut her eyes in disbelief. It was an all too obvious way to distract them from their rescue attempts. Opening her eyes again, she continued. "I understand. What about Glen?"

"I can only suggest that you keep trying to contact him. For now though, do what you can."

"Roger that. On my way."

Hanging up, she reached for her Morpher. "Elemental Morpher, Ranger Shift!" she cried, turning into the Pink Ranger before teleporting away...

On the island, Vazon was slowly walking around, listening for any noises. As expected, he heard the sounds of twigs snapping a few moments later. Sword in hand, he quietly approached. He came out into a small clearing, a small stream running through it. Slowly advancing, he suddenly saw a figure running ahead of him, but with it being so dark he found it impossible to see which Ranger it was. Without hesitation, he began to run after his target.

As he ran through the trees, the figure disappeared. He stopped for a few seconds, looking around cautiously. However, he wasn't fast enough to see the large stick heading towards him, smashing into his side. He grunted in pain as he swung around to see Drake standing their holding the weapon, quickly letting go and performing a roundhouse kick to his opponent's chest. It didn't hurt him, but it caught him off guard enough to make him stagger. Wasting no time, he rushed forwards and attempted to disarm the warrior, but Vazon stopped him long before he had the chance, kicking him in the legs and sending him to the floor.

Looking upwards, Drake saw Vazon towering above him, his sword pointing down towards the Black Ranger.

"You have failed, it would seem." Vazon taunted.

"Why..." Drake tried to ask him, winded by the fall.

Vazon stared at him. "Well?"

Waiting a few seconds to recover, he began to reply. "Why are you doing this? What's your game? One minute you seem to be toying with us, then all of a sudden you're out to finish us off!"

Vazon looked away for a few seconds before snapping back to attention, readying his sword. "I have others to consider." He said, readying his weapon to deliver the final strike. "Disposing of the two of you help me greatly."

Before Drake could reply, Vazon went to strike, until a familiar voice yelled.

"Wait!"

Both young men looked over to see Emily standing not too far away from them. Seeing that Vazon was distracted, Drake quickly rolled out of the way, jumped up and ran towards his friend.

"What are you doing here?" he quickly asked her.

"You saved me, now I've saved you." She smiled.

"And now your lives are at its end." Vazon replied as he threw a golden orb of energy at them, which smashed into the ground behind them as they fell to the floor to avoid it.

"That does it. No more running!" Drake whispered to Emily. "Do or die time. You with me? We can do this, someway, somehow."

Emily nodded. "Right."

They both stood up and prepared to fight. Emily was still recovering, but at this point there was no other choice. The two sides started to charge at each other...

As they did so, Tristan and Lisa continued their battle. Lisa had summoned her Wind Staff and with their weapons, the pair had taken out the remaining Troopers and had moved on to fighting the Defencebot.

"Do as I do!" Lisa yelled as she held out her hand. "Combination Orb!"

A dark purple mist appeared, forming the orb, which she now held in her hand. She looked over to Tristan, who nodded and did the same. Now that both Rangers held their orbs, they slotted them into the right hand slot of their belts. Both their weapon orbs and these new orbs glowed brightly, the Combination Orbs briefly pulsing with red and pink lights before glowing in a bright purple light.

Lisa began to rapidly spin her Wind Staff around, as if she was about to use her Wind Tunnel attack. Instead of doing so in front of her, however, this time she was doing it above her head, a visible swirl of wind beginning to appear above her.

At that point, Tristan moved behind Lisa, making sure that both Lisa and the Defencebot were lined up in front of him. Holding his Saber above his head, it began to glow in a bright red light until the blade burst into flames. Powerfully swinging forward, the flames show out from the blade and flew straight into the miniature whirlwind that Lisa was producing.

"Fire whirl!" they both cried as Lisa suddenly brought her staff in front of her, still spinning it at amazing speeds. The flame-filled whirlwind burst towards the Defencebot at great speed, smashing into it. Sparks shot out from it as it was slowly lifted into the air. All of its chains and spikes tried to do something, but they ended up wrapping around each other in the air above the machine.

Suddenly, both Rangers heard a familiar voice. "Power of the Earth! Ground Splitter!"

Both Rangers had to cover their eyes from the bright yellow light as a large chunk of concrete shot towards the Defencebot, quickly followed by Glen, striking into it and smashing it into pieces, the full force of the attack slamming into the machine's body. At great speed, Glen landed on the floor and dropped straight into a roll, jumping up and landing beside his Ranger friends as all of their weapons disappeared.

"Miss me?" he said in a strangely cheerful tone.

"Where the heck have you been?" Tristan asked.

Glen shrugged. "Well, I'm not the fastest person to wake up, even in an emergency! Still, it's all good!" he said, giving a thumbs up.

Before any of them could reply, they heard an all to recognisable noise. Turning around, they could see the Defencebot, still intact, moving towards them. It was badly damaged in places and several of the chain spikes had been destroyed, but it was still in fighting condition.

"Oh, come on!" Tristan hissed. "Any suggestions?"

"We're not going to be able to use our weapons for a while, so we'll have to make do." Lisa replied.

"Got it." Tristan replied. "Go!" he yelled, as the trio began to charge...

Meanwhile, the battle was in full swing on the island. Drake and Emily were trying their best against their opponent, but Vazon was overpowering them. Emily did her best using basic punches and kicks, whilst Drake was attempting to outsmart his enemy with a variety of more technical attacks.

Drake attempted to hit Vazon with a flying kick, but failed as Vazon blocked it, whilst using his natural strength to throw him aside with the same block. As Drake hit the floor, Emily ran over to him and helped him up. Vazon went to approach them, sword in hand.

Before either side could make a move, however, they were both surprised by three distinct noises, sounding similar to some kind of cannon, but far louder.

All three of them began to look around, but Vazon saw it first.

'_So, they were able to make the first move after all.'_ He thought as he saw three green bolts of light, flying through the skies. A few seconds passed and as he expected, there was a brief flash around the island. Vazon's communicator began to make a noise. Keeping an eye on his two targets, he reached for it and held it up to his face.

"Go ahead." He muttered.

Vazon and the Rangers heard the familiar sound of a Trooper. "General Vazon. Our ship has been attacked by an unknown type of energy particle. Most systems have been temporarily disabled, including the Isolator Beam. Our attack force has almost fallen as well. The other Rangers have heavily damaged the Guardian Defencebot."

Hearing this, Emily and Drake became alarmed. "The others are fighting?" Emily exclaimed.

Drake nodded. "Yeah. Well, if I'm right, his beam was what was stopping us using our powers. Let's finish this quickly and give them a hand." He said, reaching for his Morpher. Emily did the same and they nodded at each other.

"Elemental Morpher! Ranger Shift!" they cried, transforming into their Ranger forms.

Vazon watched them transforming and allowed them time to summon their weapons. Emily rushed forwards with her Water Scythe, somehow managing to land a direct blow on him, reeling backwards. She quickly jumped to the side to allow the blast from Drake's Void Cannon to hit its intended target, sending Vazon flying to the floor.

They both cautiously approached him, but he seemed winded.

Drake looked at him, curious. _'This isn't right...'_ Looking up to Emily, he reached for his Morpher. "Come on, we have to go."

Emily looked back at him, before looking at Vazon and back to Drake. "But we have a chance to end these attacks!"

Drake shook his head. "Something isn't right. Move it, now!" he barked as he teleported away. Emily was taken aback by his return to his former borderline-rude self, but she could feel it too – Vazon made absolutely no attempt to block their attacks, as if once again he was toying with them. Taking one last look at him as he started to stand back up, Emily teleported away...

Back in town, the other Rangers were having trouble dealing with the Defencebot, even after using their magic abilities as well. Just as the remaining chain spikes threw them aside once more, Drake teleported in, closely followed by Emily.

Tristan and the others looked on, feelings of surprise, happiness and relief overflowing them.

"You made it!" Tristan exclaimed, running over to his friends as the others jumped up to do the same.

Before they could get there however, Drake held up his hand, signalling them to stop before turning his head to face them. "We can do the whole happy reunion thing later. Right now, we have some scrap metal to deal with, right Emily?"

Emily nodded. "Right!"

"Are you sure?" Glen asked them.

"After the last day, we can do anything!" Emily said, cheerily.

"Time to see if this works!" Drake said, holding his hand out as Emily did the same.

"Power of the seas! Water Tower!"

"Power of the void! Black Hole!"

As the pair called out, the green orbs materialised and they slotted them into the right hand slots in their belts. Since they currently didn't have their weapons summoned due to their teleporting, the correct orb appeared in the left hand slot and their weapons appeared. The green orbs began to glow in an amazing, bright blue and black colour respectively.

As Drake took aim with his Void Cannon, Emily held her Water Scythe above her head and slammed it down into the ground in front of her, facing the Defencebot. Cracks formed in the ground until it reached the mechanical menace, at which point cracks started to appear underneath it and near it in a circle. Water slowly started to appear from the cracks until a huge stream of water burst from the ground, throwing the Defencebot high into the air. As it did so, Drake fired a tiny black sphere from the Void Cannon, speeding towards the target. As it connected, it began to rapidly expand, the Defencebot clearly visible inside it being stretched inside the sphere. It continued to grow until it was nearly the size of a house before instantly shrinking back to its original size, resulting in a huge explosion.

Watching until the dust cleared, it was clear that the machine had no chance at all. In fact, there was no trace left of it anywhere.

Everyone watched on in stunned silence for a few moments, amazed by the power that the green orbs had shown so far. A few moments later Emily and Drake turned around to face each other.

"We really need to use that more often." Emily said cheerfully, before running up to Tristan and Glen, hugging them. No-one else noticed, but Drake looked away slightly, as if he was feeling uncomfortable.

Lisa walked up to the three friends. "Let's head back, then we can talk properly." She said, looking over at Drake. "Are you just going to stand there, tough guy?" she said in a jokey tone.

Snapping back to attention, he looked up at his friend. "You got it. Let's go!" he replied as they all teleported away as the first lights of a new day began to emerge in the distance...

A short while later, everyone was back at the base where Lisa was explaining to the others what had happened.

"And that's basically it. If Katie hadn't managed to locate Vazon's ship and contacted the right people to get those charges fired at it, this could have turned out a lot differently." Lisa said.

Glen grinned. "So she's the person who tells you about the attacks, right? She sounds pretty awesome. When are we going to get to meet her?"

Lisa shook her head. "Who knows. She's a very important team member – she did most of the work in creating the powers we use and for that reason, she stays at a secret site quite some distance from here. She's really impressed with the way we're all handling Vazon's attacks."

Hearing this, Drake butted in. "He's not the main man."

Everyone stopped talking and looked at him. "What do you mean?" asked Tristan.

Leaning back against the wall and folding his arms, Drake began to explain. "Before we left the island, one of Vazon's goons contacted him and called him General. Now, I can't say how an alien army works, but normally when there are Generals, there's usually someone else higher than them calling the shots. For now, we're just dealing with Vazon and his one ship. Sooner or later though, we could potentially have a whole space armada flying over our heads. I'm pretty convinced that this is just the beginning."

Emily's face began to look downhearted. "If that is true, this could go on for a very long time..."

Drake shook his head. "As for Vazon himself, there's definitely something not right about the guy. He could have finished us off multiple times today, but he chose not to. It was almost like he was waiting for us to be rescued. That being said, there have been plenty of things that he's done lately that just don't add up."

Nodding, Tristan replied. "I agree... For now though, all we can do is wait for him to make his move."

They all nodded in agreement before moving on to talk about more positive things...

Meanwhile, Vazon was on the bridge of his ship, leaning against a console and clutching his chest where he had been wounded by the Rangers' attacks.

'_I'm playing my part perfectly... The question is, will he?'_ he thought as he looked out of the window into space...


	8. Might

'This might be enough to satisfy him.'

Vazon stood in the energy tank room, looking at the ball of pure white light floating in the middle of the tank, big enough to take up just over half the space in the tank. He'd hoped that he would have a bit more than this at this point, but he smiled none-the-less. There were still ways of using this to his advantage.

As he stood there, lost in thought, he was quickly brought back to attention by the sound of a Trooper walking into the room.

"General Vazon, we are being contacted by Supreme Commander Wrinn. He wishes to speak to you at once." It said.

The smile on Vazon's face quickly turned into a scowl. "Very well, I'll be right there." He replied as the Trooper walked back out onto the bridge as Vazon began to follow. 'He "wishes"? More like demands...' he thought as he walked onto the bridge.

As Vazon walked in, the Trooper spoke once more. "The communications array is still damaged. You will be limited to audio-only communication."

Vazon nodded in response. "Very well, patch him through."

The Trooper moved to a nearby console and began pressing buttons. Crackling noises filled the air for a second before an aggressive sounding voice could be heard.

"Vazon, report in at once! I demand to know why I've yet to receive a single delivery of energy!"

No matter how many times he heard Wrinn's voice, Vazon couldn't help feeling the rage flowing through him whenever he had to listen to it.

"Yes, Master." He began to reply. His voice didn't convey it, but he despised having to call him by that name. "It was only recently that I was able to reactivate the Troopers and-"

Before he could finish, Wrinn cut in. "I don't care how long ago it was, you still had time to gather energy!"

Vazon's fists clenched. They'd barely started talking and already Wrinn was showing how self-centred he was. He didn't even seem all that bothered about the fact that Vazon hadn't contacted him. 'He's going to get what's coming to him.' He thought.

"The situation isn't that simple. I swear to you, Master, I will not back out on our arrangement."

There was silence for a brief second, before the sound of Wrinn's laughing filled the air. "You mean the deal that keeps me from killing your father? If you can't keep to your end of the arrangement, dear prince, I have no use for you. Of course, your father is an extension of that, too."

"No!" Vazon cried. "Allow me to explain the situation, then you can decide for yourself." His heart was pounding by this point. He was playing a very dangerous game here, a game that he couldn't afford to lose.

"Get on with it." Wrinn replied, a menacing tone running through his voice.

"The intelligence on this planet is incorrect. According to the information I've been given, the planet was meant to be unguarded, but I've found this to be untrue. There is a group of 5 warr-"

"Five?" Wrinn screamed. "You are meant to be the strongest warrior of your race, you worm, and you dare, [b]dare[/b] tell me that your problems are down to 5 measly humans?"

"Hear me out!" Vazon insisted, continuing before Wrinn could get another chance to butt in. "These are no ordinary humans. Somehow they have been able to empower themselves with the essences of the very elements that keep the universe in order. They call themselves "Power Rangers" and have access to technology far beyond our expectations."

"Pathetic!" Wrinn yelled, cutting in once more. "You were more than satisfactorily equipped for an energy harvesting mission. How dare you tell me that my kindness and generosity wasn't enough to fight back."

At this point, Vazon wanted him to be right there on the bridge in person. Even if he wasn't strong enough to take him on, nothing would please him more at this point than the chance to try and lay into him. 'Kindness and generosity? What would you know of either? You put me on a ship that's falling to pieces, leave me to reactivate my own forces and expect me to perform miracles?' he thought .

"They have already destroyed countless Troopers, as well as several Defencebots. They have even beaten me in combat multiple times. Even when using the energy on the Defencebots in an attempt to even the odds has failed. I request that reinforcements be sent to aid me immediately."

"Absolutely not." Came the deadpan-sounding reply.

Vazon's eyes widened in surprise. "But Master, without additional support, it is impossible for me to accomplish my mission." He didn't like it, but he knew he had to resort to pleading with him. He knew all too well that if he couldn't persuade Wrinn to play along, all of his plans would be for nothing.

Minutes of tense waiting passed before Wrinn finally replied. "I will consider it, if you can prove your commitment to the cause."

A look of concern came over Vazon's face. He knew he was backed into a corner and would essentially have to run with whatever Wrinn suggested. "Fine."

Another laugh could be heard from Wrinn, but this time it was far more sinister. "I'm going to assume that by this point you have at least some energy left over. I want you to use it, personally, to attack these "Power Rangers". If that still isn't enough, then I'll consider sending extra forces. Now, I do not want to hear from you, at all, until you have results. Wrinn out."

Before Vazon could reply, Wrinn cut off the communication line and the lone warrior was once again left to the sounds of his ship and the Troopers that moved around him. Walking over to his seat, he sat down, trembling from the request.

'If I want to have any hope of ending this madness, I have to follow whatever Wrinn commands, for now. But... Using that energy could kill me...' he thought to himself as he considered his options.

After mulling it over for a few moments, he walked back into the energy tank room, looking at the glowing ball of energy once more. He shook his head, sighing as he walked back out and picked up his helmet off of a nearby console, putting it on. 'Hell help me. This had better work.' He thought to himself as he looked over towards one of his Troopers. "I'm heading down to the surface. Continue with repairs."

Wanting to get it over with, he didn't even wait for the Trooper to reply before he teleported away in an orb of golden light.

Moments later, he teleported right into the middle of Hawshaw Vale's local stadium. Looking around the stands, it looked like the place was empty. 'How fortunate.' He thought as he created golden balls of energy in both of his hands, throwing them into the stands, hoping that the senseless destruction would be enough to catch the Rangers' attention.

Sure enough, moments later the entire team teleported in, ready to fight their foe.

'Good. They're here.' He thought as the Red Ranger pointed towards him.

"You again! Haven't you done enough damage?"

Reaching for his sword, Vazon pointed it at the Rangers in response. "Apparently not!" he yelled, charging forwards as the Red and Black Rangers charged towards him, whilst the other three fell back to summon their weapons.

'Their teamwork is getting better... Now to hope the same is true about their actual fighting abilities.' Vazon thought as he easily kicked the Red Ranger away whilst knocking the Black Ranger back with an elbow strike before sending him flying away with a roundhouse kick. Just as he did so, the Yellow Ranger threw himself towards him, claws in hand. Despite seeming to have the perfect opening, the Yellow Ranger was no match for Vazon as he delivered a perfectly timed punch, bypassing the Yellow Rangers claws and connecting with his stomach, forcing him to stumble backwards, winded. Wasting no time, Vazon followed it up by hitting him with an uppercut, sending him crashing into the female Rangers as they attempted attacks of their own.

'And I'm still not trying... Disappointing, at best.' Vazon thought as he watched the Rangers standing back up. Holding his sword out to his side, he started to concentrate and the blade began to glow in a golden light. Before any of his opponents could react, he slashed his sword out in front of him, the golden energy bursting out in a wave at blinding speeds, leaving no time for the Rangers to react. Before they could even stand up they had taken the full force of the blow and were back on the floor.

"Pathetic." Vazon yelled at them. "Surely you can do better?"

At that point, the Red Ranger had pulled out his sidearm and was taking shots at him. Vazon did nothing as the blasts hit him dead on, making him reel backwards, although it didn't do much to him otherwise. In retaliation, Vazon created more orbs of golden energy, but as he was about to throw them he was hit from the side by a blast from the Black Ranger's weapon, throwing him completely off balance and forcing him to dissolve the energy balls.

"Do it, now!" he heard the Black Ranger yelling.

Vazon looked up at the other three Rangers, who were summoning their spell attacks.

"Gale Force!"

"Wave Smash!"

"Earth Spikes!"

The Pink Ranger shot at him at a very high speed, a pink aura surrounding her. As he reached Vazon, she slowed to a stop, the built up energy carrying on in the form of a ball of highly concentrated wind. However, Vazon had seen this attack before and had a perfect counter to it, slashing down on it with his sword, the now harmless air flying past him on both sides before disappearing. However, once again he'd fallen for the distraction trick as Vazon was slammed into by a wave of water before being flung around by spikes of earth flying out of the ground. As he crashed to the floor, he grunted a little as he felt the blow. 'Getting better.' He thought.

As he climbed back up, the Rangers regrouped, ready to take him on once again. However, he had different ideas, reaching for his communication device. "Troopers, direct the energy from the tank to me. All of it. That's an order."

"Here goes nothing..." he wondered aloud as a beam of white light shot down onto him from his ship. As it started to take effect, he shut his eyes, hoping that he'd still be alive when he opened them again.

Despite grunting in pain, the effects subsided after a few seconds and he opened his eyes. 'It's worked!' he thought, amazed by it all. He was now huge, towering not only over the Rangers, but now the entire city. Even more strangely, he felt like he had healed a bit. "Come at me, Rangers! You can do better!" he yelled, waiting for them to accept the challenge.

Sure enough, within seconds they were calling their Zords – the Dragon, the Owl, the Seal, the Bear and the Rhino.

Wasting no time, the Bear Zord went straight in for the kill, attempting to attack Vazon with its powerful Void Beam, the stream of pure black energy smashing into Vazon's chest. Despite the fierceness of the attack however, he barely felt it.

Before he could mock the Black Ranger within, however, the Dragon Zord flew straight for him. Unfortunately, the Red Ranger wasn't expecting Vazon to recover so quickly and wasn't able to avoid his opponent as he grabbed the Zord by the neck and tail.

"Such a shameful performance." Vazon commented as he began to pull on both ends of the Zord, sparks flying all over it as it began to weaken under the pressure.

Thinking quickly, the Yellow Ranger seemed to be attempting to save his teammate as he used the Rhino Zord's power to throw a massive lump of ground towards Vazon. However, the move backfired horribly as Vazon used the Dragon Zord as a kind of cricket bat, causing the Dragon Zord to take most of the blow as well as returning the lump of ground back to its sender, smashing into the yellow Zord with full force. Letting the Dragon Zord go, it flew uncontrollably for a few seconds before crashing into the nearby Seal Zord whilst the Owl Zord flew ahead, flapping its wings before firing a wave of pink energy towards him. It didn't hurt, but it hit him in the eyes, blinding him momentarily.

Stumbling around for a few seconds, he refocused and was able to see again, just in time to see the Rangers finally looking like they were taking him seriously, showing even more power, although this wasn't exactly what he was expecting.

The Dragon Zord slowed down in mid-air until it was hovering, at which point its head, neck, tail and wings disconnected from the main body and moved away whilst the main body compacted itself into a rectangular shape. Meanwhile, the Bear and Rhino Zords moved underneath it, their heads moving down to the ground whilst the rest of their bodies moved into a vertical position, like some kind of L shape. As they did so, the main body of the Dragon Zord moved down and slotted onto the other two Zords, forming too legs and a main body, a small compartment in the front of the chest folding out to reveal a symbol with the Rangers' 5 elements on. The Seal Zord split into half, with either side joining the main body at the shoulders to reveal two arms. At this point, the Dragon Zord's other parts returned, the head being used in the left hand as a shield whilst the tail shifted shape to reveal a sword. The wings connected on the back of the new machine whilst the neck wrapped around the waist to act as some kind of belt. Finally, the Owl Zord floated down from above, its head folding into its body to reveal a second head underneath. As the Zord attached itself to the rest of the body, the head's eyes lit up, whilst the back of the Owl Zord made it look like it had pink hair. The transformation was complete.

The Zords had now combined to form a more humanoid-like machine, standing tall and proud among the many buildings of Hawshaw Vale. Vazon looked at the new form for a few moments. 'So, once again they reveal a stronger ability. Good.' He thought as he began moving towards them, intent on testing their new abilities.

The Rangers reacted in a similar fashion, moving towards Vazon and trying to land hits with its sword, although they couldn't keep up with Vazon's far superior close combat capabilities. As he gracefully avoided another slash, he countered with one of his own, straight across the mighty Zord's chest, the amount of sparks making it look like some kind of fireworks display. As he finished the slash, he followed it up with another powerful kick to the chest, sending them flying backwards, landing in the nearby lake.

As Vazon moved in to deal more damage, he failed to notice his opponent dropping its sword and shield, the Zord's hands changing into what looked like cannons. Raising them above the water, it fired powerful streams of water towards Vazon. However, he had no difficulties in avoiding them and with his free hand, he threw a golden ball of energy directly at the Zord, and another, and another. By the time he'd finished, steam was rising from the heat created by the attacks.

Standing before it, Vazon looked down on his opponent, which seemed to be struggling to move. Holding his sword pointing down on the Rangers, he yelled out at them. "Game over!"

Suddenly, the Zord seemed to get a second wind as it reached for its shield and deflected Vazon's attack with it. As Vazon looked towards it, a bright red light came from the chest symbol on the mighty creation, before the shield glowed in the same light and a stream of fire burst from its mouth, straight into Vazon's armour. He yelled as the force of the attack sent him careering backwards. He was able to prevent himself from falling over, but he was left slightly dazed and hurt by the blow.

As he regained his composure, the Zord flipped onto its arms and legs before the Dragon Zord's powerful wings allowed it to take flight, lifting it out of the lake as it soared through the skies. It looped around and flew straight at Vazon, slashing it with its powerful sword as it did so, spinning Vazon around. He could see the enemy flying back at him for another pass, but he wasn't fast enough to do anything to stop them as the attack connected with him once more. The Rangers kept this up, doing it 3 more times before finally landing opposite him, Vazon falling to his knees from the pain.

'Good, but I need you to be stronger!' he thought as he stood back up, looking at his opponent. 'That way I can be, too.'

Dropping his sword, which shook the ground as it landed, he held his arms out to either side, his hands glowing with golden energy as it slowly grew along his arms. When it finally reached his shoulders, he threw his hands out towards the Rangers with great force, a massive beam of golden light blasting towards the Zord. However, the Rangers seemed to see this coming as the symbol on its chest glowed in a black light before a cover of pure black energy surrounded it for a few seconds, completely absorbing the attack and leaving it unharmed.

As the dust settled from the attack, the Zord held its sword out and the symbol on its chest glowed brightly in all five colours, which turned into orbs of coloured energy that left the chest and began to circle around the sword's blade.

Vazon smiled. 'It's about time, I was getting tired of pushing you.' he thought as he watched on.

The lights started heading into the blade from the base up. The black orb went first, followed by the pink, yellow, blue and finally red, which went into the tip of the sword. It glowed in a brilliant white light as the Zord dashed forwards, striking across Vazon's chest. Despite seeing it coming, he made no attempt to deflector avoid the powerful attack as it struck him, the elemental energies infused in the blade also releasing themselves as the blade hit the intended target. As the Zord finished the attack, it shoulder barged Vazon to get some distance as the elemental energies combined and exploded, a massive ball of fire erupting where Vazon stood.

The Zord turned to face the blast, watching and waiting as the dust cleared. However, they were shocked to see that Vazon had survived the attack as he knelt on the ground, his armour heavily damaged. Blood could be seen in some places where the damage had been so much.

'Excellent. Now he'll have no choice.' Vazon weakly thought as he shut his eyes. There was a blinding light that the Zord had to shield itself from as the energy dispersed from Vazon's body as he felt himself returning to his normal size. As he returned to normal size, the pain from his injuries seemingly became a lot greater, the pain relieving effect of the energy now gone. As the light faded, he fell to his hands and knees, exhausted.

Seeing him returning to normal, the Rangers jumped out from their Zords, landing in front of him.

"This is over!" he heard the Pink Ranger yelling at him.

However, Vazon simply laughed it off and stood up, although he struggled to do so. Seeing him laughing seemed to be disturbing the Rangers as they moved back into defensive positions.

"Believe me, Rangers..." he said as he coughed and grunted from the pain. "This is far from over."

As he said that, he teleported away back to his ship, leaving the Rangers standing there...

A short while later, Vazon was back in his chair slouched back, barely having the energy left to sit up. The after effects of the attack had dealt far more damage than he was expecting. However, he was still alive and had something to report. The Rangers didn't realise it, but he'd won after all, despite taking a huge risk in doing so.

"Trooper." He said weakly. "Has any progress been made on repairing the Communications Array?"

"Yes, General Vazon. We are now capable of full visual transmission."

Vazon smiled to himself, a sly expression on his face. 'Good. That'll help with the convincing.'

"Contact Wrinn at once." He ordered as the Trooper complied with his request and pushed a few buttons.

A few feet from Vazon's seat, there was a pale green circle on the floor. As contact was established, the green became brighter as it lit up, a hologram emerging. 'Still as ugly as ever.' Vazon thought as he saw his nemesis for the first time in months.

The hologram was tinted green, but there was no denying it was him. He stood at about 6 foot tall, covered in bulky armour apart from his head. Despite being human in appearance, he was bald as his race didn't have hair. His face conveyed a sense of anger and arrogance, two traits he was well known for. As soon as he saw Vazon, he couldn't resist laughing.

"The plan was a failure? It's a shame these Rangers didn't strike a little bit harder, since you are clearly useless!" he taunted.

Although it was highly tempting, Vazon chose not to take the bait and begin an argument. That would mean throwing away too much. As he replied, he sounded genuinely weak from the damage he had sustained, but he made himself sound even worse than he was to convince Wrinn.

"Master, I am sorry to have failed you. Even with using all of our energy reserves, it wasn't enough to defeat the Rangers. It only lead to them revealing even more of their power, a power I cannot deal with alone. Without support, we will fail. I have very limited forces left at my disposal. Please, my Master, I request more support and plead for another chance." As he spoke, he felt a sense of shame fill him. He hated having to beg this cruel being, yet circumstances put him in a position where he simply had no choice.

Wrinn remained silent for a few moments before replying. "Very well. I will send my finest General, Gathrill, to aid you and to keep an eye on the situation. But this is your last chance, Vazon. If you fail me again, our deal will come to an end, as will you and your father. I also expect you to keep trying with what you do have left until he arrives. Is that clear?"

Nodding in agreement, Vazon replied. "Of course. Thank you, Master. I will not let you down."

"We will see, worm." Wrinn replied before cutting off the transmission.

Sighing in relief, Vazon sank backwards in his chair, smiling a little. 'Success... For now. Fear not, Father, I will end Wrinn's rule, no matter what it takes' he thought as he looked out of the window, towards Earth. 'And some day, I will pay for what I've done to do it...'


End file.
